The lethal vacancy on the battleground of the mind

jim

Yes.That's it.Israel needs to find a way to get europeans to understand that even if Israel had never existed,the west would still be living under the threat of islamofascism.If Israel goes, we're next.

Miles Teg

Melanie I agree with you that the Israeli media-response was slow and inadequate to say the least. But at the end of the day what Israel really needs is more European spokesmen that will claim back the streets of London, Berlin, Rome, Madrid and Paris from the Islamo-fascists. The Europeans already let 77 years ago a loud violent well organized mob take control of their streets. The Nazis started with the Jews and we all know how it ended. I call upon all European readers of this blog: "Sound your voice!!" so the media and the politicians won't be able to ignore you anymore.

AY

A headline in JP:

'Free Gaza' to shut Cyprus office.
Ban on Gaza-bound ships leads group to consider move to London.

LOL.
Eager to see how they arrive here - with all that metal bars, knives, axes, slingshots, and clubs. Those peaceful cuties.

David Lindsay

Perhaps American (and British) Christians might be alerted to the plight, views, and indeed existence of the Holy Land's Latin Catholics, Melkite Catholics, Maronite Catholics, Syrian Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Armenians, Anglicans and Lutherans?

Is Hanan Ashrawi fighting an Islamic holy war? Was Yasser Arafat's mother-in-law (his wife converted to Islam for inheritance purposes)? Were the founders of the PFLP and DFLP, which continue to draw significant support from Christians?

If Middle America, in particular, ever did become aware of the indigenous Christianity in the Middle East (Iraq would also be a good place to start), then that realisation would change the world. That is why it is not allowed to happen.

Rob-NY

To defenders of Israel, the steady flood of damn lies on this issue leaves us bailing out the arena of debate with a tea cup with the tap of lies still is running. It is meant to demoralize us but we must never give in. History will never forgive us if we do.

Josh

Spot on Melanie

Andreas

I'm an American, and i am just now aware of the situation in Europe because of Mark Steyn's book America Alone. I feel so much anger over this, like I've waken up to a nightmare. Something must be done!

Mike Stone

"More disturbingly still, it is reluctant to admit even to itself that it is facing not a war over territory but an Islamic holy war. As has been said to me on more than one occasion by members of Israel’s establishment: ‘Since we are surrounded by many millions of Muslims, a religious war against us is far too terrifying for us to acknowledge’."

Exactly. If Israel's enemy is not just the Palestinians, but the entire Moslem world, that means they cannot win. Support from the US will no doubt put off the evil day, but weight of numbers will get them in the end. No wonder they are in denial about it.

Incidentally, in what sense has Israel ever been the "front line" between Islam and the west? If there is such a line, I'd have thought it was in maternity wards all across Europe, and in Europe's desire for cheap labour, which ensures it will never get serious about immigration. How exactly will anything done in Gaza or the Jordan valley (or indeed Iraq or Afghanistan) make the slightest difference on either point?

Terry, Eilat - Israel

I think this time you have really hit the nail on the head, Melanie gets 100 points on this. The Israeli establishment is as riddled with political correctness as anywhere else in the West. A serious weakness is that by officially accepting the two-state nonsense & promoting Fatah as a ''peace partner'' Israeli politicians are unable to tell the truth about Abbas & Fatah. They don't want to ''weaken'' the moderates, how's that for a joke? And on the subject of Islam, even worse, Israeli politicians as well as our media is far too ''respectable'' to tell the truth, we don't want to ''offend'' the people who want to kill us. Add this to the points you made in the article & it's a sure-fire recipe for disaster.
As an Israeli, the saddest thing for me is to see our lame spokesmen stumble & bumble their way through a press-conference or interview. Our best & most impassioned defenders are not Israelis, most often, not even Jews.
I can only say Thank G-d for our gentile supporters or we would be mute.

Terry, Eilat - Israel

If I may, I'd like to add one more observation. We are bullied because we let others bully us. Every concession, every compromise, every attempt to be ''reasonable'' only encourages more demands. The world does not respect the weak & this goes double (even triple) in the Middle-East.

Ros

Excellent analysis. Instead of investing in developing more and more sophisticated armaments, Israel needs to invest in an English speaking broadcasting service along the lines of Al-Jazeera. Surely there are enough wealthy Israeli/Jewish entrepreneurs out there who could be involved in this. It's about time. The only way is to go on the offensive and stop defending every action after the event.

Jerry

"We Con the World" has been quite effective in reaching over 1 million people. Those without a predetermined opinion probably laughed and thus become more pro-Israel.

The problem is that governments per se are never allowed a sense of humor - so devastating to lies and propaganda - so Israel can never effectively counter those lies.

It would be interesting to see how Israel will be able to handle taking Turkey's Erdogan captive if he indeed joins the next flotilla. Would the world MSM see the irony in Turkey going to war with Israel over the return of its president when it was the president who offered himself as a prisoner. His actions would be both a casus belli and a casus laughter. Want to see "bitter", just wait.

Turkey's animus toward Israel would surely be used as a cover for continued Iranian nuclear weapons development. That is really funny!

Paul Baars

If this be the case, and I do agree that it is, then it is our responsibility to sound a voice for Israel. Best would be a united voice. Dear Melanie, you are a verry well spoken supporter of Israel, Is there a way to organize some sort of Pan European cooperation between supporters of Israel so we can sound a positive voice as fast as the negative is formed ?

Regards,

Paul Baars
Netherlands
www.vriendvanisrael.hyves.nl

Juggler

Israel is really in a No Win situation. No matter what it does it will always be portrayed as the bad guy by the Far left leaning Media. I do agree though that it's attempts at PR are horrible. Always being put on the defensive & winding up having to apologize for their very right to exist. I don't think there is any good answer to this problem. All I can add is "Sometimes the best defense is a good offense".

Miles Teg

Here are some photos which explain why 9 terrorists were killed on the Mavi Marmara. It's because they kidnapped 4 Israeli soldiers, hence been eliminated in a hostage release operation. The operation was in small cabins of the ship which explains why they were shoot from a close range.

See for yourself:

http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/GaleriDetay.aspx?cid=36575&p=1&rid=2

Neil Turner

Israel is a modern-day miracle

May 15th 1948 - Birth: Isaiah 66.8 "Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once?"

Israel's Protection: Ps 121:4 "Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep"

The end of the story: Zech 14 2-3 : "For I will gather ALL nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle"

Israel's existance is nothing to do with human strategies or power. There is no logical way it should have been reborn. There is no logical way it should have won when assailed in various wars

But it did

And The Lord God of Israel continues to stand by it, no matter what the Media think or Governments do

Rip Van Winkle

Miles Teg @ 11:43pm

I try Miles, I try. "count ten" I think before blasting off but I occasionally let rip. as per my first name; must cool down and keep level headed.

Mladen Andrijasevic

First, we have to establish whether the Israeli leadership itself understands that what they have been facing in the past nine decades is ‘not a war over land but a holy war, driven by the fanatical Islamic belief’. They seem to, and we know that because Moshe Yaalon says so himself in his article A New Strategy for the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict http://www.jcpa.org/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=1&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=442&PID=0&IID=2515&TTL=A_New_Strategy_for_the_Israeli-Palestinian_Conflict

It could be, however, that his understanding is not 100 percent in that Yaalon believes that another Oslo type compromise is possible without a victory first, a sine qua non according to what Daniel Pipes has been advocating.

Regardless, it is so true that the Israeli government has failed to fully make the case not only to the outside world but to its own people, the consequence of which is that we get a thousand useful idiots demonstrating in Tel Aviv for the lifting of the Gaza blockade. The lifting of the blockade would simply increase the number of Hamas rockets falling on our heads in Be’er Sheva and their heads in Tel Aviv as well.

It is unfortunate that we all have to suffer the consequences of the left being not necessarily lazy, but psychologically blocked to seek the real causes of the conflict and spare some time reading a few dozen books on Islam.

Miriam

I read your article today with a heavy heart and recognise the truth in every word. I had heard Samira Ahmed's interrogation of the weary Mark Regev which replicated the ferocious Kirsty Wark at times. The last word was given to a flag waving Irishman condemning Israel and supportive of destroying Israel's security measures. I share your concerns and increasingly want to show my solidarity and friendship to Israel. You mention the support from American Christians and make no mention of Christians in this nation who support Israel.I don't mean this as a cricism but wonder if we are keeping such a low profile as to be thought insignificant. With rare exceptions Christians who support Israel usually meet outside the established Churches and are probably considered as "odd" or "renegade". In terms of Israel 'defending' itself against lies and defamatory propaganda I am still at a loss to understand why no challenge was given to the hypocrisy demonstrated by Cameron, Hague and others by immediately condemning Israel's actions re the "flotilla" incident and using different rules re "Cumbria" eg Teresa May being applauded for urging "caution before knowing the full facts and making knee-jerk conclusions" and "in time there will be the fullest inquiries". She thought in these circumstances ie a "killing rampage" by Bird "she wanted to see the all the facts. This featured on Radio 4's news coverage 4th June. MP's were quick to say "she speaks for all of us". Similar remarks were made in parliament re.involvement in Afghanistan. This seems indisputable evidence of a dual standard operating for Israel. Keep going please.

Ben David

The main thing that limits Israel in stating its case is the reluctance of the secular elite to speak of our ancient - and inherently religious - bond with this land.

Whenever Begin - and now Bibi - even alludes to that bond, the secular, socialist elites break out in hives - and do all they can to ridicule and bury such statements.

When these people - whose parents were determined to forge a "new Jew" divorced from the Jewish religion - articulate a rationale for Jewish presence, they never reach back further than the Holocaust.

This denial of their own roots led the Israeli left to accept the idea that the Palestinians are somehow more "authentic" in their claims to this land.

And it continues to limit their ability to defend themselves against the charge that they are colonial usurpers.

Susan

Really good article.
As a British Christian, I am always so frustrated with the press in this country and agree with Ros there should be an Israeli news channel to give the true stories. When I talk to people about the truth they are then supportive of Israel but so often if they are not very motivated they will not search for the truth and take the BBC and Sky reports as being legit and unbiased(LOL)At the end of the day Israel has many UK Christian support but unfortuntely we too are being marginalised and in some cases persecuted for our faith in our own country now. God will fight for Israel and will WIN! Take heart.

Julius O'Malley

Dear Melanie,
Your analysis is as damn near perfect as it gets - you have articulated precisely and crystallized what is wrong with Israel's PR, the reasons underlying its ineptitude in this regard and the gross historical error (Oslo onwards, Camp David onwards?) of it dancing to a tune written by others who mentally live, wholly or partially, in that odious "meta-narrative of lies".

For Israel to operate within the intellectual-historical framework dictated by others who do not and will not see the underlying Islam-driven animus to Israel's existence can only ... I'll use a superb Australian expression here: Israel is "on a hiding to nothing". (A "hiding" is a belting, a bashing, a flogging; derived from having one's "hide" tanned). Axiomatically, Israel, dancing to such a tune, has not and cannot make any headway in the strategic war for the hearts and minds of Westerners let alone win it.

You rightly refer to Israel's lamentable failure to go on the public offensive. By being micro-reactive instead of macro-proactive PR-wise and diplomacy-wise for the last 35 years, Israel's reward has been to forfeit the support of the Western establishment, academy, media and, ultimately, masses.

Recall the era when during the 1967 and 1973 wars the people of the Netherlands queued in droves to donate blood for Israelis who may/would be wounded in those wars. Young Dutchmen tried to volunteer - enlist with the IDF - to fight for Israel. The people of the same nation now, by a significant majority, especially the young people, regard Israel as the world's numero uno troublemaker and threat to "world peace". Yet nothing has since changed substantively in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel continues to conduct itself as any civilised Western democracy would under extreme duress and its enemies continue to conduct themselves with the utmost barbarity.

Mark Steyn has identified that Jews have historically been the "canary in the coalmine" and has extended that anology to Israel. It has been in the front line of the West's existential fight for half a century when most of the West didn't, and still doesn't, even know it is in a fight.The head of the Swiss People's Party gets it:he recently stated that Israel must be supported - not out of any particular love for Jews or Israel - because it is in the frontline and if it succumbs Europe will be next. Geert Wilders gets it too. Orianna Fallacci finally got it, sadly a little too late in the piece to fully deploy her formidable talents, but her essay "I stand with the Jews, I stand with Israel" is a masterpiece of eloquent, poetic analysis of what ails the West.

The black paradox is that the Westerners who have the most to lose are the most likely to join the Israel-hate train, the champions of "multi-culti": leftists, milquetoast and self-hating Jews (two distinct categories), feminists, gays (cf:Queers aganst Israeli Apartheid et al) and secularists.

The consequences for all of us are indeed baleful, but I, personally, would not be persecuted in an Islamic state or Islam-influenced state - only my recreational drinking would be impaired. I should have written "Islam-dominated" state instead of "Islam- influenced" above because I live in a state which is already "Islam-influenced".

The litmus test is whether one could safely walk the streets in a tee-shirt fashioned on the flag of Israel. In the CBD of the city in which I live doing so would invite, at the very least, vitriolic verbal abuse within minutes and instant ejection from most taxis. In vast swathes - accessed from the CBD by a freeway cutely nicknamed the "Middle Eastern Distributor" (actual name "Eastern Distributor") - of my city, certain physical violence and likely death.

AY

Israeli soldiers beaten by "aid flotilla" monsters.

http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/GaleriDetay.aspx?cid=36575&p=1&rid=2

What dangerous cretins these hairy uncles are. They display these images to prove upper hand against Israeli commandos. And that is more important for them, than to preserve reputation of "aid convoy".

In couple of minutes 9 of these "activists" will be dead and others taken prison by IDF. Images only suggest that this is exactly what they deserved.

Fred

You are absolutely right. Even the backward Gazans are now using well-educated media spokesmen and women (particularly women) who put their case (that is to say their lies) in clear educated American or English accents. The Israelis are still using spokesmen with heavy Hebrew accents, which simply don't sound convincing to western ears.

The Israelis now must urgently enlist the help too of the evangelical churches who are very keen to help. A close relationship must now be established (including allowing some immigration of these people into Israel, as many of them want to be directly involved). Policies and strategies must be coordinated as the situation is already becoming desperate and Israel now needs every ally it can find and it needs to get serious and very fast.

Paul Freeman

Melanie

I agree with much of what you say, though not with the suggestion of incompetence on Israel’s part. It’s a matter of practical politics.

Firstly, I don’t believe Israel can appeal to the American Christian right above the head of the US president. That would invite political disaster by playing into the hands of “Jewish lobby” conspiracists. More generally, Israel cannot be seen to be dividing the West: it must always remain a team player. This is the reality for a tiny country with Israel’s history heavily dependent in a multiplicity of ways on a few friends.

On the larger point about the religious nature of the war being fought against it, Israel cannot make this case without setting in concrete the hatred that exists for it across the Muslim world. If Israel acknowledges the conflict as religious - which it quite clearly is - then no leader of any Muslim country will be able to resist calls for jihad. And that includes those nominally at peace with Israel. That is why Israel has to frame the conflict as territorial in which the dispute concerns only the Palestinians, not the entire Muslim world.

Here the situation parallels that regarding Israel’s alleged nuclear capability. Like the religious nature of the war being conducted against it, everyone in the Arab world “knows” about it, but, precisely because of Israel’s policy of silence, no one’s “honour” is challenged into doing anything about it. (eg by having their own)

Like you, I am frustrated by Israel’s PR on the media, but it seems to me that, given the limitations of its position, there may not be much more than it can do on the public stage, although privately is another matter. The reality for Israel is that, publicly, it must wait until the penny drops in the West and people wake up to the fact that Israel’s war to survive is the same war the rest of us must ultimately face, and indeed are already facing. (What is disturbing is why it is taking so long. Since 9/11, at government level at least, the West appears to have gone backwards.)

In the meantime we are left with the extraordinary paradox that while Israel has been so successful militarily, it appears to continue to fail on the public relations front. But underlying this we have to recognize also the more brute one: although since 1948 self-reliance has always been a fundamental principle of Israel’s strategy, its ultimate survival depends on the outside world.

In the end, Israel’s tragedy is part and parcel of the same tragedy that afflicts the modern Jewish people that, as you yourself have so eloquently written, Jews can no longer tell their story.

We need others to tell it for us.

Bob, son of Bob

Why don't Jews in Hollywood like Spielberg make a film showing the other side?
All we get is the usual messages from Hollywood, eg in the latest Robin Hood movie it begins with Robin Hood telling off the King for the Crusades.

Bob, son of Bob

Andreas June 6th, 2010 5:58am
Re Mark Steyn's book America Alone. I recommend looking up videos of Mark Steyn on YouTube. YouTube is the new TV station giving us all the broadcasts which the main TV stations should be showing us but are not. How furious the Left must be at the free speech of the internet.

Bob, son of Bob

Ben David June 6th, 2010 9:56am
"The main thing that limits Israel in stating its case is the reluctance of the secular elite to speak of our ancient - and inherently religious - bond with this land."

Meanwhile those who want to drive the Jews into the sea can see this bond quite clearly, and they see Israel as the symbol of the two world religions which predate theirs. To conquer these lands by means of a second holocaust would make them feel triumphant and good about themselves and bring them ‘honour’ and ‘glory’. We do not have to understand their concept of ‘honour’ to acknowledge that it exists. We do not understand honour killings where a father kills his daughter, but we acknowledge that they exist too.

alan stoddart

As a journalist in Gaza said 'In modern warfare a picture is worth a thousand weapons.'

A Hamas terrorist said openly that Rachel Corrie
was worth more dead than alive.
"'Her death serves me more than it served her,' said one
activist at a Hamas funeral yesterday.
'...Her death will bring more attention than
the other 2,000 martyrs.'"

Joseph Smith, one of the witnesses who contends that Rachel Corrie was “murdered.”
The spirit that she died for is worth a life. This idea of resistance, this spirit of resisting this brutal occupying force, is worth anything. And many, many, many Palestinians give their lives for it all the time. So the life of one international, I feel, is more than worth the spirit of resisting oppression.

ISM director George Rishmawi(Palestinian) says it is useful to recruit American college students for the purpose of getting them hurt or killed in confrontations with Israeli security forces. 'Putting them in harms way is good for the cause....if some of the foreign volunteers get shot or even killed then the international media will sit up and take notice.'

A policy that is well understood by every BBC journalist....show a child crying or injured and you know which story will resonate most with the public spoon fed propaganda by the BBC.

‘One lesson well understood in both Stalin’s Russia and Nazi Germany was that propaganda is most effective when it is backed by terror.’

Dogsbody

Susan, I applaud your good sense and decency.
May I suggest that you Google the site, KOLISRAEL, which will give you access to numerous Israeli and international sources.
You might want to recommend it also to others.

Neil Turner

Bob Son of Bob 10.59

"Why don't Jews in Hollywood like Spielberg make a film showing the other side?"

My sense is that the majority of US Jews are liberal left-wingers, probably Anti-Zionist, non-religious

Speilberg's film on the Munich Massacre thus portrayed Israel negatively

As anti-Semitism, fuelled by Obama's rhetoric and actions, rises in the USA, it will be interesting to see what happens

We may in our lifetime another Aliyah, where there is mass-immigration of Jews from the USA into Israel

watttyler

Paul Freeman
June 6th, 2010 10:54am

I agree. The propoganda fight is not Israel's. That battle is to be fought in the rest of the world. And that is where we come in. The weakness with anything that stems from Marxist ideology is that it is so profoundly anti-human that it needs to be subsidised by tax. Granted, the tax is enforced by draconian law, but it is still a weakness. So it is with the BBC.

Now is the time to realise that we are all involved in the war between Israel and Irrational Evil. Real lives are at stake here. We can no longer hide from it. There is a simple way to start fighting back, and that is stop paying your TV licence fee. How can you keep giving money to an organisation that is in the vanguard of anti-semitism. If you support the BBC, you support their evil. Simple as that.

I would advise people to give up their TVs so as to avoid breaking the law, but even if you provoke a call from an enforcement officer (after which you can buy a license) then it means that you have diverted BBC money into rooting you out. We must make the BBC waste its money, and keep money from it. There must be a sizeable movement so that the BBC and the Government see how hated it is. Are you going to grow some balls for Israel and the Jews?

watttyler

Yeah, you see, the worrying thing I notice when I read these posts is the belief that the Leftwing media is a thing that is eternal, and we have to modify our propganda to serve it.

NO!

Stop buying your paper. Cancel your SKY subscription. Boycott the leftist hollywood releases. Use the internet for your news. Set up your own site. Collaborate with each other. When they shut down the web, deliver pamphlets. Do everything to shut the enemy down. You have already lost if you think that you cannot do this. As consumers, you have the power in your hands. You might end up in a prison - sure - but then we are fighting a tyranny because that is what you have to do against a tyranny. Stop sucking your thumbs, and fight back, for Christ's sake.

AY

wattyler - agree 100% except for Christ.

Control over the web isn't fantasies.

For example google is clearly pro-islamic. Look at the google-map of your city and notice how many references to Islamic businesses are there.
Then look at the map of Israel. At high magnification, all names of towns and villages in the neighboring Arab states are duplicated in Arabic, but nothing is written in Hebrew on the Israeli side. Google is already wiping Israel from the map.

Bob, son of Bob

The last film that showed the Israeli forces in a positive way was the 1976 film 'Raid on Entebbe' about the rescue of Israeli hostages in Uganda. Come on rich right-wing people! Do something! And if the lefty establishment will not give your film general release, put it on YouTube!

To be fair to Hollywood, they are not only anti-Israel, they are also anti-USA. Most plots are like 'Avatar' where the goodies are those within the US who wish to sabotage the US military, also known as traitors.

A bit like our anti-British Broadcasting Corporation really.

Lao Tzu

To a mere Gentile like me, your claim that "...Israel is the front line of the west’s own defences against the jihad," reads like a David Icke conspiracy theory. Very poorly researched, filled with baseless dogmatic (and possibly xenophobic) assertions.

This kind of subjective speculation actually detracts from the objective debate in the international community regarding Israel's actions; in particular, capital crimes against Turkish citizens and very grave crimes against humanity (Article 6 of the Charter Provisions of the Nuremburg Trials and the 1907 Hague Regulations).

Sadly, by adopting the position that the international outcry is an inconsequential "diplomatic game", Israel will further alienate itself from the rest of humanity.

just Louise

Israel needs a TV channel that can broadcast to the world the way Press TV and Al Jazeera do. Surely this necessity would be worth the funds. The "Flotilla Choir" cast should be regular guests with other clever spoofs. They're brilliant.
Israel needs civilian spokeswomen as well as just men. They must be absolutely fluent in English and their accents must be understandable.
If you search "poster Israel" on Google images and go to page 19 of the search you'll see, towards or at the bottom of that page, a frightening image of posters held by participants at a hate-filled demonstration that claim any treaty by a Muslim country with Israel is not binding on that country. That's one scary scary scary image. To see it is to really wonder what is the real and longterm nature of the enmity that Israel faces.

AY

Lao Tzu - what you say is clearly inconsistent.

Israel confronts enemies whose terrorist activity is well documented.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_suicide_attacks

In order to understand per capita effect on population morale, - this is an equivalent of thousand 7/7s in Britain.

Mladen Andrijasevic

First, we have to establish whether the Israeli leadership itself understands that what they have been facing in the past nine decades is ‘not a war over land but a holy war, driven by the fanatical Islamic belief’. They seem to, and we know that because Moshe Yaalon says so himself in his article A New Strategy for the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict http://www.jcpa.org/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=1&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=442&PID=0&IID=2515&TTL=A_New_Strategy_for_the_Israeli-Palestinian_Conflict

It could be, however, that his understanding is not 100 percent in that Yaalon believes that another Oslo type compromise is possible without a victory first, a sine qua non according to what Daniel Pipes has been advocating.

Regardless, it is so true that the Israeli government has failed to fully make the case not only to the outside world but to its own people, the consequence of which is that we get a thousand useful idiots demonstrating in Tel Aviv for the lifting of the Gaza blockade. The lifting of the blockade would simply increase the number of Hamas rockets falling on our heads in Be’er Sheva and their heads in Tel Aviv as well.

It is unfortunate that we all have to suffer the consequences of the left being not necessarily lazy, but psychologically blocked to seek the real causes of the conflict and spare some time reading a few dozen books on Islam.

John

Instead of focussing on how to defend ourselves against this hatred, I suggest we start explaining it to the world as a preparation for the Islamist's upcoming 'war of annihilation'(genocide)against the State of Israel. Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon (Hizballah) and now Gaza (Hamas) are all planning a fresh attempt to 'wipe Israel from the map'. Reminiscent of the treatment of European Jews in the 1930's, their incitement, demonization and deligitimization of Israel in world opinion are just the groundwork for the war. At some point there will be a fatal provocation and 50,000 or more missiles will be falling on this little country. 'Is that what you want?', we should say to the supporters of this apocalyptic anti-Israel alliance. Because if you give your support to these Islamist warmongers, they will certainly give you war and destruction. They will almost certainly bring their violence to your countries too, for this war will not be confined to the Middle East and neither will it lead to Israel's destruction.

Linda Smith

Lao Tzu accuses Melanie Phillips of "subjective speculation". He asserts, without any evidence, that Ms Phillips "claim that Israel is the front line of the west's own defences against the jihad" is "poorly researched, filled with baseless dogmatic (and possibly xenophobic) assertions" but fails to justify his own subjective opinion.

Lao Tzu' then claims "This kind of subjective speculation actually detracts from the objective debate in the international community regarding Israel's actions..",

Contrary to Lao Tzu's thesis, human beings are not "objective". Each human being views the world through his own perceptual spectacles which, amongst other mediators, are coloured by his/her own personal prejudices. Therefore, no debate is objective. It is precisely because human beings are subjective, not objective observers, that the rule of science requires the result described must be independent of the observer (observer agnostic). Any other observer, equally skilled in the art, must be able to exactly reproduce the results described.

phil

Lao Tzu
June 6th, 2010 1:19pm
Before you spout your nonsense again would you please take the trouble to answer the questions that were posed to you by a number of contributors .Probably you will not, as you appear to this writer to only be here to annoy ,more likely ,you cannot ,so what I wonder is the point of our bile nobody here seems to believe you-try the Guardian ,there will be many friends for you there.

Mark2

I agree with a lot of this but could we all stop pretending that this is all just about "the left"

First as Melanie herself has made clear the new British Government of the right and (so called) centre has not exactly covered itself in glory over the flotilla affair.

Second and of course allowing for all the apallingg israel haters that there are on the left (Livingstne et al) others feel just as strongly the other way.

Nor - although I realise that this is the Spectator site - should we ignore the strong probability that the "left's" Israel hatred, along with it courtshipp of islamic radicalism is actually contrary to its true nature and so what the left logically should believe as people like Nick Cohen and David Aaronovitch argue.

Thomas

And yet, Israel has managed to persauade the world that it is at war; that it is a war for its very existence; that it is not the aggressor; that its blockade is legal. It has even prsuaded a few that the convoy was a convoy of TERROR whose purpose was to invade Israel and foment global JIHAD; and that it has laready managed to incite a global POGROM.

Augustus

Snared by a pathological obsession for aid and equal rights the world has, in recent decades, lost all common sense and proportion regarding Israel. Five million Jews surrounded by a billion Muslims. A prosperous democratic welfare state in the middle of self-indulgent dictatorships, apocalyptic theocrats, and absolute monarchs; rulers who can only rely on their
citizens obedience through the barrel of a gun. Populations which they, under the divinity of the Prophet, have united in the fairy-tale that all evil and misery must be lad at the door of Zionism and the eternal
Jew.

But if anyone just looks for a moment at the big picture they see a land that in six
decades has transformed a desert and swamp into a modern state leading the world in innovation and industry. A land that per capita produces more academics than any country in Europe. A land which registers more patents per year than the whole Arabic
world registers in a decennium. and all that
in spite of being meanly attacked throughout
by that same Arabic world. Purely because of
irrational hatred for Jews. Because of no other provocation than Israel's existence.
And because the differences between the Israeli success and the Arabic failure have
now become so great, nobody even dares believe that Israel has earned her success
and welfare honestly. After all, everyone is supposed to be equal, and that isn't the case in the Middle East.

just Louise

david Lindsay, well and good, but the Christian population of Palestine and of Lebanon has shrunk, in no small oart owing to Muslim intimidation resulting in emigration overseas. Just one further facet of Islam's hegemonistic objectives in the region.

Adam B.

Lao Tzu makes the ignorant assertion that there is no jidad against the West, and then accuses Melanie of poor research.

With respect lao Tzu, I would suggest it is you who needs to do a little research about the jihad against the West. The jihadis hardly keep it a secret to themselves.

Mike Stone

AY "For example google is clearly pro-islamic. Look at the google-map of your city and notice how many references to Islamic businesses are there.
Then look at the map of Israel. At high magnification, all names of towns and villages in the neighboring Arab states are duplicated in Arabic, but nothing is written in Hebrew on the Israeli side. Google is already wiping Israel from the map."

Nar, they are just treating Israel as part of the civilised Western world - where of course, everybody knows English, or if they don't, it's time they learned it.

Stephen Blowers

I agree with Neil Turner. The whole world will raise its hand against Israel then God will show His hand. We are rapidly coming to this point. Even those who called themselves 'friends if Israel' are turning their backs on Israel. Make your mind up now on which side you stand. I am for Israel and the Jews.

zkharya

The West will sacrifice Israel to appease militant Islam. And it will work. For a while. Decades, maybe. Sometimes, alas, you need to lose a battle, to win a war. The West will wake up. But too late for Israel, alas.

The Jews are few, the militant Islamists are many. The Jews are expendable, red meat to stave off the wolves.

For a while.

arkletten

As Mohammed said, 'War is deception'.

What has always perplexed me was how the original Zionists did not 'get' the extent of Muslim antipathy towards Jews in choosing to settle in and around Jerusalem in the 1880s and 1890s. At how miscalculated this was.

I can only surmise they were European secular intellectuals who thought the middle ages were well past. Their co-religionists living under Islam could have told them differently. There seems to have been little communication.

l.lennard

you cannot expect any more from the British,in the UN mandate of 1949, the States,Canada,Australia, New Zealand,all voted for partition, who abstained, Britain of course.

Bob, son of Bob

John 2:36 says "for this war will not be confined to the Middle East"
Many think it is only the Holy Lands which those seeking war against Israel want, and if we appease them by letting them get what they want they will be satisfied. Watch Mark Steyn's videos on YouTube and see that they have bigger aims. Just because most in the West value peace over war, we should not assume that everyone thinks the same way. You might be thinking about your mortgage and your children's choice of school and your football team and your car, but there are others walking around with their heads filled with ideas about the glory of conquest through war.

Steve Nimmons

I don’t entirely agree that the Israeli political machinery is in the disarray described. I do however concur with the sentiment that renewed proactive discourse is needed in addressing the key issues surrounding Israel’s case. Hasbara needs to come ‘off the back foot’ and realign cogent and focused arguments with strategic foresight.

thetallguy

Yes, I agree with the suggestion above, surely Steven spielberg could be called upon to make a film showing Israeli commandos heroically gunning down unaarmed civilians.
GREAT IDEA !!

Anat

I actually think that this time Israel has got it right.

The clue is in this quote from Melanie's article:

"On the day of the flotilla incident, all the outraged governments were on the airwaves almost before anything had happened. But it took five and a half hours before the Israeli Ambassador in America appeared in public."

The reason is quite simple. A lie is quicker to produce, while the truth takes some checking.

In the end, after double-checking, the Israelis posted the truth online, first hand testimonies, and the tide began to turn.

I think that this is all the Israelis can do. Talking heads are preaching only to the converted, whereas facts online speak volumes. They take time, but it's worth it.

Mr Melrose

I'm beginning to understand that the debates on here are between the (very)far right/fundamentalist religious types (almost everyone on here) and anyone else(AKA 'Terrorists', 'Useful Idiots' 'Islam Enablers' etc etc)

Being Jewish (or not) or supporting Israel (or not) is actually irrelevant, isn't it?

PS Can anyone spot the difference between those on here gagging for nuclear war ('lets drop the bomb and take the west down with us') and your average jihad nutter? Please explain, if you can.

Bob, son of Bob

thetallguy - glad you like my suggestion - you can have a job on the set if you like. You are not too tall to serve tea are you?

Derek BLADES

The essential point of Ms Phillip's latest blog - and indeed the essence of her support for Israel - is that the Middle East problem is not “a dispute between Israel and the Palestinians over dividing up the land”. It is rather a “geopolitical drama in which [Israel] has such a pivotal role.” MPs Phillips believes that this geopolitical role is a clash between civilisations –between Islam and the Judaeo-Christian west.

Her problem is of course that not many educated people believe this. And they do not just work for the BBC and the Guardian. Large majorities in Europe and America take the commonsense view that resolution of the “dispute between Israel and the Palestinians over dividing up the land” would go a long way to defusing Islamic antipathy towards the West. And this is not altogether unreasonable. In his first cave-man video Osama bin Laden listed the Israel-Palestine dispute as one of the reasons why he had ordered the Twin Towers attack.

Fortunately the Obama administration has understood this. The Israel Palestine dispute over dividing up land is seen by the President and his advisors as major hindrance to its defence of American interests in West Asia and that is why he is working to implement the two state solution. Let’s give peace a chance.

Adam B.

Blades, if this conflict is simply about land, (and presumably you mean the 1948 ceasefire lines), can you explain why it was that there was no peace between 1948-1967, when there was no so-called occupation? Why did the Arabs repeatedly attempt to destroy Israel during that period? What has changed in the interim - and can you provide evidence for this?
And why do the major players of the region still advocate the destruction of Israel?

Jill

Melanie, it's more serious than that. As a result of the EuroArab Dialogue, EU policy has been specifically to denigrate and abandon Israel to the Arab Islamic menace, especially through media, cultural and political channels. None of this is an accident.

However. since most normal people - ie non-lefty, non-media, non-educational and other cultural prostitutes - do understand Israel's plight I do agree that proper PR would help to make Israel's case.
IF you could get the media channels and publicity! It's very likely that many channels would be refused to Israel and its reps once they realised that they wanted pro-Israel messages distributed.

Travis

Miss Philips:

You are assuming that the world is receptive to hearing anything that Israel has to say in its defense. You need to reread your own book "The World Turned Upside Down" - reason and rationality is missing from the Israel haters minds. Israel needs to act vigorously in its own national interests. She gets in trouble when she is indecisive and tries to split the difference with her critics, who frankly are unappeasable. As Netanyahu has said "Israel is guilty until proven guilty".

JOHN ROOSEVELT

Julius O'Malley: thanks for a terrific pst.

Would you please tell me in what volume of Oriana Fallaci's works can I find the essay you referred to?