freedmanslife

Rebooting the Start-Up Nation

2011-08-28T16:12:48.393+01:00

The now-legendary tent protestors of Rothschild and other boulevards of Tel Aviv purport to represent a broad sweep of Israeli middle-class society. But although they count among them many economists, strategic consultants and philosophers, they have yet to coalesce around many coherent and practical solutions. Not only that, but many are questioning how much this protest has led to true introspection on what society has become, and what it could be, as a result of our individual behaviour, whether as ordinary citizens on a daily basis, tycoons, small business owners, state employees or politicians. Odd as it may seem, perhaps there is a direct link between the cause of the problems being protested, the lack of solutions, and the way people treat each other on a day-to-day basis. It also leads to a radical socio-economic solution involving those same groups; the state, large and small business, and we the public. Israelis use the Yiddish word “freier” to define society’s sucker, the guy who spends a few shekels more than he absolutely needs to on shopping, the girl who didn’t negotiate on her rent, the fool who lets someone else into the traffic instead of shaving four more seconds off his own journey. More pertinent to the many professionals among the protestors, who find themselves qualified as accountants and lawyers but still unable to do better than just cover their living expenses each month, nobody wants to be the “freier” who retained the best available legal advice when he could have just googled the answer, got some free help from his brother-in-law, or hired a cheap suit for the odd hour of really necessary work (and still haggled on the price). Meanwhile, there is a well-reported concentration of wealth, with a handful of families unwilling to let go of their oligopolies, lest they too become “freierim”. And yet they may find that an efficient, streamlined business holding 40% of a competitive and growing marketplace, makes them more money than the unwieldy conglomerates they currently have controlling 80% of a marketplace half the size. These factors are shown in economic statistics; whilst Israel is known as the “Start-Up Nation”, only 10% of its workforce are actually engaged in high-tech, and only 62% are employed in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the driving force of a high-value, sustainable middle-class economy. In the other OECD countries, the proportion is between 2/3 and over 3/4. As SMEs are generally more efficient and therefore potentially more rewarding than public sector or conglomerate employers, this 5%-15% gap may well account for the almost total exclusion from the modern Israeli economy of Orthodox and Arab Israelis, and the poor ratio of earnings to outgoings of those middle class protestors.                      However, even those who currently run SMEs are not immune to the “freier” syndrome. It is common for example to see restaurant staff whose minimum wage is paid out of the tip jar. This leads to bad staff retention, poor customer service, higher levels of dishonesty, and overall a negative effect on profits. But the restaurateur does not want to be the “freier” who pays wages up-front when his competitors are not, and when he can see the extra few thousand shekels in his pocket now. The idea of speculating to accumulate is reserved for one’s investment portfolio after exiting the business, not while running it. The short-term mentality of Israel’s entrepreneurs and venture capital investors presents a vicious circle; funding is targeted at those seeking a quick exit, by those seeking a quick return. At the other end of the spectrum, the handful of powerful families who own the major institutions as well as the largest companies, protect their asset base judiciously and invest in only conservative assets outside their own empires. Furthermore, when most Israeli funds do invest, they usually do not c[...]

You are also capitalist pigs

2011-07-31T22:27:20.508+01:00

This is a translation of an op-ed by Ziv Tidhar, from Ynet today - the original in Hebrew can be found here, along with hundreds of comments. My own views will probably follow this week...Talking down to your children's teacher because you earn more than her, not tipping the delivery boy, not saying hello to the guard at the mall. You're right, it's just the state that's at fault.Everyone is talking these days of beastly capitalism, but what is this concept? It's throwing the trash bag out of the door, for the Arab who comes tomorrow to clean the stairwell to have to take. It's talking to your children's teacher like dirt, just because you earn more than her. Beastly capitalism is getting hundreds of thousands of shekels from your wedding, with cold calculation that the cheques of your friends, who can barely get through to the end of the month, will cover it and leave a surplus for a luxurious honeymoon.It's clearing the furniture from your rented apartment right into the middle of the pavement and entrance to the building, because with such municipal taxes, they deserve it. It's throwing the old newspapers at the bin rather than into it, so the Arab (from before) can practice clearing them up. Beastly capitalism is agreeing a price with the electrician, plumber or air-conditioning technician and then reneging, denying, and chipping away at the cost. It's not visiting your grandmother for six months, just because you work hard and you do not have time to breathe, only to find the time to visit her just when you need some money. It's dodging the va'ad bayit because you're not a sucker, and anyway in a few years you'll sell the apartment to go up another rung. Beastly capitalism is to tell everyone at work about your amazing last holiday in Berlin - and anyone who hasn't been just doesn't know what they are missing. It's parking the car in the disabled space, on a crossing, a pavement, double-parked, or plain and simple, merely because you are in a hurry, in the bus lane. It's beeping at the world with elegance and also smoking where it is forbidden, because for the money you paid for the beer, no one has the right to tell you how and what to do. It's not giving a tip to the delivery guy who brought your shopping, because the prices are high. It's loudly and visibly humiliating the public service clerk and saying she should be fired, because she's just the random clerk who came to work yesterday and doesn't understand much in life. It's insisting on employing a foreign worker to clean the house just because she takes a few bucks less than the market price, and not paying her Social Security. Why? She'd never sue. It's not meIt's not bothering to write the occasional thank-you note when the service was good or ex-gratia, but on the other hand hastening to send vicious letters from your lawyers. Beastly capitalism is agreeing to buy two or three or four books for 100 shekels without even blinking; so what if the writer gets screwed and crushed.It's asking to transfer your child to a school across town, where there are fewer Ethiopian kids. It's failing to tell your child what conditions his grandparents lived in when they came to Israel, and to tell the truth: they were happier than both of you put together.It's the way you enclose the mirpeset however you like, even if it's an eyesore for the neighbours - there is no law against it, and anyhow everybody is doing it. It's not explaining to your 4 year old child not to load up the plate, but to take a few small portions. It's not saying hello or good morning to the guards at the mall. It's begining a sentence directed to the supermarket cashier or the shop assistant in the booming "BRING ME". It's dreaming all the time about living in a better place. It's burning or downloading music files without paying royalties. Insisting on using all efforts and every trick in the book, to pay less than the asking price for a show or a concert. Anything but pay the normal price.It's running around the shops on erev yom tov like a maniac in search of [...]

The challenge of public diplomacy vis-a-vis the delegitimisation of Israel

2011-01-06T10:36:40.736Z

Melanie Phillips's address to Ariel Conference on Law and Mass Media, 30 December 2010  As we all know by now, Israel has lost the battle for public opinion in the west. Even the Israel government is now acknowledging this fact. Israel and its defenders have been outclassed and outmanoeuvred in a war of the mind being waged on a battleground it never even acknowledged it was on. Calls for more and better hasbara, however, are meaningless if the message or narrative promoted by Israel and its defenders misses the point of the attack being waged upon it. And it does miss that point, by a mile.  You cannot resist or overcome a threat unless you first understand its nature. The first thing to say is that this phenomenon is characteristic not just of the media animosity or economic or academic boycotts. It goes across the intelligentsia and political class, spreading well beyond the normal suspects on the left into the mainstream middle-classes. In Britain, the universities, the established church, the theatrical and publishing worlds, the voluntary sector, significant elements within the Foreign Office, members of Parliament across the political spectrum, as well as the media have overwhelmingly signed up to the demonisation and delegitimisation of Israel.  The scale of this phenomenon is nothing short of a multi-layered civilisational crisis. The west is experiencing a total inversion of truth evidence and reason. A society’s thinking class has overwhelmingly subscribed to an immoral, patently false and in many cases demonstrably absurd account of the Middle East, past and present, which it has uncritically absorbed and assumes to be true. In routine, everyday discourse history is turned on its head; logic is suspended; and an entirely false narrative of the conflict is now widely accepted as unchallengeable fact, from which fundamental error has been spun a global web of potentially catastrophic false conclusions. This has led to a kind of dialogue of the demented in which rational discussion is simply not possible because there is no shared understanding of the meaning of language. So victim and victimiser, truth and lies, justice and injustice turn into their precise opposite. This madness is being promulgated through a global alliance between state and non-state actors – diplomats and journalists, politicians and NGOs and websites. Many of these are waging war not just against Israel but against the west. There are two preconditions for an effective fightback. First is to form effective structures of resistance. Those structures, however, depend in turn on a correct understanding of the nature and scale of what we are up against.  So far, the structures are not in place, and more important still, what Israel is up against is grossly — and fatally — underestimated and misunderstood. The problem is that we are dealing with a pathology — to which we nevertheless respond as if it were rational behaviour.  What’s happened is a pattern of thinking in the west which turns reality upside down. Remarkably, this in turn echoes a very similar inversion of reality within the Islamic world, where such inversion has a theological base. Because Islam is considered perfect, its adherents can never do wrong. All their aggression is therefore represented as self-defence, while western/Israeli self-defence is said to be aggression.  So in this Orwellian universe the enslavement of Muslim women is said to represent their liberation; democracy is a means of enslavement from which the west must be freed; and the murder of Israelis is the purest form of justice. Furthermore, this is overlaid by the phenomenon of ‘psychological projection’ in which the Islamic world not only denies its own misdeeds but ascribes them instead to its victims. So while Muslims deny the Holocaust, they claim that Israel is carrying out a holocaust in Gaza. Antisemitism is central to Jewish experience in[...]

Taking the Mick

2010-12-04T20:07:44.195Z

As the fires burn in the Carmel, as the debate rages in the pages of the JC, as the British cold makes me feel ever more ill and homesick, I realised it has been many weeks since my last posting.Let's first try to understand something about what Mick Davis said. A transcript of his remarks can be found here. I think it is quite incredible that the interviewer and all the subsequent participants in the public debate on his comments (pro and con) have totally overlooked the most startling sin of his remarks.This is that he has used his controversial opinion on Israel as a smokescreen for having no real answers about Anglo-Jewry.He was asked a question about characterising the leadership of Anglo-Jewry  (he sits on the Jewish Leadership Council so he ought to know a thing or two about this) and chose instead to answer it through the prism of where he thinks they sit on the spectrum of opinion about Israel. Actually I think this sidesteps the key issue - how are they doing at leading British Jewry? The answer is - disastrously. I do not believe that the British Jewish community has at all come to terms with the fact that its communal structure has totally failed to adapt to the realities of Generation Y.Our generation lives in an increasingly busy marketplace of ideas. The Jewish community, spearheaded by the UJIA as its biggest funder of communal activity, the Board of Deputies as its official mouthpiece, and the United Synagogue as its largest body of shuls and being under the auspices of the Chief Rabbi, has failed to tackle assimilation, build a strong and positive identity that has Jewish spirit at its core, create a safe and respected place for the Jewish community in the wider UK, or find a way to weave real support for Israel into its activities.Instead it trumpets Jewish primary schools as the single biggest success that will provide a panacea for the community, even though most parents, if honest with themselves, will tell you they send their kids to Jewish schools because they think they are better than non-Jewish schools, not because of their belief in faith schools. In fact, I would venture that for too many parents, sending kids to a Jewish primary allows them to absolve themselves of much of the responsiblity of inculcating a positive Jewish identity in their children.Where are Mick Davis's thoughtful comments on how new British Jewish leadership is developing? Why are there so few voices questioning why, after being here for over 350 years and apparently being so well-respected by our "hosts", we still have elected leaders whose idea of speaking out loud and proud on our behalf is "why shout when a whisper would suffice?" When some of our figureheads dare to challenge this way of thinking, they are ignored - who has even heard of Samuel Hayek? Yet I would hazard that Mick Davis gets the column inches because editors are happier promoting his position.Why is it that the only exciting things going on in our community are apparently happening outside the big organisations mentioned above? Much as I don't agree with their politics on Israel and general lack of quality shampoo, the likes of Moishe House and Wandering Jews are at least providing some alternative, fun and imaginative activities, such as the Jewltide Party. And when it comes to laying on the style and quality, the CJL are a mile ahead of any US-affiliated NW London shul trying to compete in the same space. Limmud is still streets ahead in its presentation of a wide spectrum of opinion on all things Jewish and Israeli, and it continues to be a mark of shame on the United Synagogue that they cannot find any formal way to participate.Let's look at some of Mick Davis's concerns (my comments in italics): 1. Minority rights in Israel, Arabs as second class citizens, lack of UK Jewish leaders who speak up for themWhilst there are organisations such as the New Israel Fund who spend increasing time and resources trying to bridge the undoubted quality gap between Israe[...]

Ahmedinejad's idea

2010-10-24T11:34:48.274+01:00

Shongololo's African Adventure: Part 5 (Jozi-Home)

2010-09-16T18:32:04.145+01:00

Emaweni webaba Silale maweni Webaba silale maweni x9Homeless, homeless Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake Homeless, homeless Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake We are homeless, we are homeless The moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake And we are homeless, homeless, homeless The moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake Zio yami, zio yami, nhliziyo yami Nhliziyo yami amakhaza asengi bulele Nhliziyo yami, nhliziyo yami Nhliziyo yami, angibulele amakhaza Nhliziyo yami, nhliziyo yami Nhliziyo yami somandla angibulele mama Zio yami, nhliziyo yami Nhliziyo yami, nhliziyo yami Too loo loo, too loo loo etcI landed back in Joburg in the middle of the night, crawled to the Avis, picked up another little runabout, and headed back to Victory Park. England had managed to come second in their group courtesy of the Americans scoring a last-minute winner against Algeria and their own inability to manage more than two goals against three pretty crap teams in 270 minutes of footy.With my plans to have an easy trip to Rustenburg for England's last-16 match and a Soccer City quarter final match involving England on my final night now in disarray, some reshuffling of the ticket pack was in order.A call to Bisonsbrother to offload the spare tickets and get some travel companions, a favour from the talented AJ on parking in Bloem, and a classic Jewish/Israeli coincidental encounter with a friend's brother who needed to offload his Soccer City QF tickets later, and I was back on track. We set off for Bloem and made the journey in pretty good time, other than where we hit a bit of a traffic jam due to light aircraft on the road. Seriously.Although the result was predictably crap, and was tempered by the sense of injustice over Lampard's goal-that-wasn't, and the greater sense that England had been so shite that for them to beat the Krauts would have been a fluke and unfair on a German team that had played with huge flair (and went on to thump the Argies even more convincingly), we had a great day out, culminating in one of the funniest car journeys of all time on the return leg - magma-hot mayo in the chicken pasties, trying to stop for a pee and petrol in a dodgy pitch-dark township, general ripping conversation including a session on "if I had to go gay for one player at the World Cup", and so on. Benjy, Mark and Adam - I salute you.So, back to Joburg with nearly a week to kill before my final game and a flight home. AJ very kindly let me tag along on a few expeditions in return for me acting as his chauffeur and assistant. This included a trip to the quite incredible Saxon Hotel, where he was supposed to be meeting Bill Clinton and heading off for a shoot with Nelson Mandela. It turned out Clinton had already gone on ahead, so AJ was chauffeured off, I finished my 4 tiny goujons for £10, picked up his spare camera equipment so I looked nice and official and had a poke around.Seeing the sign to the Nelson Mandela Platinum Suite, and figuring that Billdog was probably staying there, I trotted up some back stairs, smiled nicely at the burly guys with dark glasses and obvious earpieces, waved my camera bits and trotted right on in.After checking out the his-and-intern's bathrooms, sweet drawing-room, lounge etc, I was feeling a slight after-effect of those pesky up-market goujons. Unable to attack the Presidential Porcelain, I sat on the edge of Bill's boudoir bed and gave him a little air biscuit to enjoy later with his post-coital cigar.Then I settled down to watch Italy vs. Slovakia, a real classic game as it turned out, until it was time to collect AJ, at which point I was driven in a limo from the porch of the hotel all of 50 yards to the garage where my little hire car was waiting. Elitism rocks.During the week, AJ also took me along to see the media centres and empty stadia at Ellis Park (where I met and chatted to my new best friend and possibly in the top 5 coolest living Israelis, Modi Bar-On), and [...]

ORFTORFU: white phosphorus

2010-09-16T10:39:26.869+01:00

"Today in the Gaza Strip, occupying forces fired a barrage of mortars, over 20% of which were white phosphorus shells, at civilian targets in total contravention of the Geneva Convention and basic moral behaviour. Human Rights Watch, the UN, B'Tselem, Hizbullah, Turkey, the International Solidarity Movement and other moderate NGOs and peace activists moved to condemn in the harshest possible terms this terrible crime against innocent women and children."

My Rosh Hashanah message

2010-09-11T08:54:38.185+01:00

Dear FreedmanslifersThis is my first Rosh Hashanah in Israel as an Israeli citizen, so although I have trodden an increasingly secular path, I am acutely aware that Israel is the Jewish nation, and whilst I am struggling with what I believe in spiritually, I want to share with you thirteen articles of faith in my homeland: I believe that Israel was founded on principles of being a force for good in the world. I believe that Israel can be proud of the way it has created a stable, modern, thriving, democratic state.I believe in Herzl's Altneuland; Zionism is not a dirty word and we are not in a post-Zionist era - Zionism should articulate our continued efforts to bridge the gap between Israel's current realities and that utopia - if we will it, it is no dream.I believe that Israelis (for all they like a good kvetch) care deeply for each other on a level that goes way beyond shared citizenship; that is why we all think of Gilad constantly, as if he was our own brother.I believe that Israel is ready for genuine peace if they have genuine partners, willing to make creative solutions that are applied equally at last (ie recognising Jewish refugees from Arab lands, allowing settlers to take PA residency).I believe that Israeli society can and will absorb the aftershock if these talks fail, and will never resile on its dream of a just peace merely because there is no-one to take its outstretched hand. I believe that Israel is held up to a standard to which no other nation is held. I believe that Israel achieves or gets close to this often- (intentionally-) impossible standard more than any other nation would, given its circumstances. I believe that there is a name for picking on the only Jewish state in such a way, and ignoring the 200-odd others.I believe that Israelis need to take much more individual responsibility for their actions domestically, for example not littering their beaches and national parks, and ensuring a high quality education for their kids.I believe that parts of Israeli society need to achieve a better balance of their rights and responsibilities; everyone should serve the country in some capacity at 18, even if it's as park rangers, beach inspectors or classroom assistants.I believe that Israel will be around a lot longer than Ahmedinejad, so it's worth planning on that basis instead of the usual short-termism that prevails in too much of society. I believe that Israel is my home. Please, those of you who are already here, help us to fix the parts that don't work; making aliyah is not the same as being an expat, and it comes with its own set of responsibilities.Please, Diaspora Jews who are thinking of a holiday or a long stint somewhere, choose Israel and help us; it is not your duty to complete the work, but neither should you desist from participating.Please, non-Jewish friends, I ask that you just judge us as you would any other country in the same circumstances; if you see mistakes on our part, work with us to resolve them, and if you see that others judge us unfairly, work with us to defend ourselves.Please, Israeli government, let this be the year that you finally understand that BDS - the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (or Blacklist, Demonise and Slander, or Bias, Discrimination and Selectivism) - and the wider campaign against Israel that involves just about everyone on the left worldwide, has subverted most of Europe's trade unions, media and academia, most Muslims (at least passively), and the tut-tutting pacifist European middle classes who support the perceived underdog, who jump on bandwaggons, convoys and flotillas at the drop of a hat - represent a major strategic threat to our country, in the long run just as important as Iran or Hamas, and require us to make a large and ongoing investment in apparatus to respond to and defeat it, just as the IDF handles military defense. I[...]

Guest spot: Tony Blair

2010-09-02T16:35:56.443+01:00

Support full compensation for the nakba!

2010-08-20T00:03:11.398+01:00

Superb article over at CiFWatch, about The Tragedy of Iraq’s Jews. As always, ORFTORFU is applied when it comes to talk of compensation and a "right of return" for Palestinian "refugees" (the definition of what constitutes a refugee is different for Palestinians compared to any other group of refugees). The Israeli government should be insisting that our own nakba is resolved alongside theirs. It might just highlight the issue that any meaningful peace accord will need to encompass a viable agreement with the rest of the Arab and Muslim world. The Arab League and Saudi grand plans so far consist of carefully ensuring Israel takes full responsibility, past, present and future, for the Palestinian issue. The settlement of the devastating wrongs wrought by these countries (in some cases led then by the fathers and grandfathers of the current rulers) must surely be part of the deal. But it won't be.Anyway, here is the article:We hear much from the Palestinian spokesmen and their Arab and other supporters about their  right to return to what is now Israel, and their demands for compensation for Israel’s alleged displacement of them, but woefully little by comparison about the atrocities perpetrated against Jews from Arab countries, who lived (and in some cases still live) as second-class citizens or dhimmis, at the mercy of the Arab/Muslim governments throughout the Middle East (see also here in respect of the Jews of the Yemen).  Lynn Julius, using the ready overidentification of CiF with its Palestinian focus, wrote about the plight of Jews from Arab lands on CiF and called their treatment in Arab/Muslim countries the Jewish Nakba. She tells us that ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab countries began when the Arab League, then comprised of Egypt, Iraq, Trans Jordan (or Jordan), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen, contemplated passing a law in November 1947 which would brand all their Jews, some of whom had been resident in their respective countries for many generations, as “enemy aliens.”  Their governments’ treatment attitude to and treatment of them was not therefore a reaction to the declaration of independence of the Jewish state and although the “enemy aliens” law was contemplated, it was enacted in their behaviour towards their Jews. Lynn Julius tells us that “The Jewish “Nakba” – Arabic for “catastrophe” – not only emptied cities like Baghdad (a third Jewish); it tore apart the cultural, social and economic fabric in Arab lands. Jews lost homes, synagogues, hospitals, schools, shrines and deeded land five times the size of Israel. Their ancient heritage – predating Islam by 1,000 years – was destroyed.” It suits the anti-Zionists to ignore this ethnic cleansing in their gadarene rush to accuse Israel of the ethnic cleansing of its Arab population, often without foundation.  I shall focus on the circumstances of Iraqi Jews, for reasons which I will explain later, but their circumstances may be said to be typical of all Jews who found themselves in Muslim countries:Iraq arose out of ancient Babylonia and Assyria and has the oldest Jewish community in the world.  There has been a continuous Jewish presence there from 721 BCE to 1949 CE, which is two thousand six hundred and seventy years.   The status of Iraqi Jews fluctuated, some even held high positions in government, but at the same time they had to pay the jizya tax levied on non-Muslims.  They fared reasonably well until Iraq became independent in 1932. In June 1941, a pro-Nazi coup, inspired by Hajj Amin Al-Husseini and led by Rashid Ali, led to riots and pogroms in Baghdad.  180 Jews were murdered and over 1,000 wounded.   More anti-Jewish rioting took place between 1946 and 1949. [...]

Shongololo's African Adventure: Part 4 (Cape Town-PE-Jozi)

2010-08-31T11:47:56.874+01:00

People say she's crazy She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes Well that's one way to lose these walking blues Diamonds on the soles of her shoes She was physically forgotten Then she slipped into my pocket with my car keys She said you've taken me for granted because I please you Wearing these diamonds And I could say oo oo oo As if everybody knows what I'm talking about As if everybody would know exactly what I was talking about Talking about diamonds on the soles of her shoesAfter an excellent breakfast in Swellendam, I took the recommendation of the local tourist office and headed off through the magnificent Tradouw Pass...... and down the Scenic Route (R62), rather than the official Garden Route (N2). This mainly allowed me to avoid most of the tourists, grab a little picnic lunch at a nice country park, and take in some serious port-tasting  at Boplaas in Calitzdorp.Following that, and needing to soak up a bit of alcohol before continuing, I forced down a couple of mugs of decent coffee with a huge icing-rich slab of cake at a very nice little cafe nearby. Oddly, there was a full-size snooker table in this cafe, so I moseyed in to see if anyone fancied a frame. Now I haven't played snooker for about 2 years, since beloved Wifey #1 buggered off to Melbourne. And it didn't help that the one guy who was there happened to be an ex-pro! I kept the score down to a respectable 40 point loss, though I suspect he was going easy on me.Now fully sober, I got back on the road and headed to the Robinson Pass. Now this is one spectacular piece of road:I got the timing right, and made it through the pass as the sun was starting to set, meaning a panoply of fabulous colours and glorious views (snapped with my phone camera on the move)...I pulled into Mossel Bay in the early evening, and chuntered up the ludicrously steep hill to the Bar-T-Nique Guest House, where I had a vast room with great bay views. I pottered down into town for a bite to eat at a local pub, watched some sport, played some pool with the local talent, and conked out. Next morning, a vast spread for breakfast, set in an atrium overlooking the bay, then off on the main stretch of the Garden Route.Some pesky work issues arose, so I drove into the rather dull town of George and found a very nice cafe with wifi, where I got a couple of hours of emails in, whilst wolfing down a decent spinach and feta crepe, before finding the lovely little "old road" from George to Knysna, which winds its way out of the back of the town, around some hairy little bends and over minuscule Brio bridges, before dropping back down through the Wilderness National Park lagoons to rejoin the N2.I had timed my run so I could get to Knysna in time for a little stroll around and to watch the South Africa vs. France match, which SA needed to win by 3 or so clear goals to have any chance of going through. The French had managed to have a massive sulk the day before, and were in total disarray, but the Saffers showed about as much competence in front of goal as Emile Heskey. So they went out, but at least it was with a win.From there, it was a simple drive up to Plettenberg Bay, where I was staying at the quite incredible Aquavit. Again I had a cavernous sea view room, and the hosts were utterly charming and urbane, greeting me at the door with a goblet of decent wine and recommending a phenomenal place for dinner, Emily's, which was off a small path off tan unbeaten track off the beaten track.After a great night's sleep in their super-king-sized bed, and a heck of a breakfast on the terrace, I was back in the car and zooming towards Port Elizabeth in time for the 4pm kick-off of England vs. Slovenia. I had time to take in the lovely Storms River, the world's highest bungee jump, and this bizarre bridge to nowhere:Arrivi[...]

Disabled Israeli children provoke rocket attack

2010-08-02T08:16:12.026+01:00

Shongololo's African Adventure: Part 3 (Jozi-Cape Town)

2010-08-01T22:04:01.293+01:00

In early memory Mission music Was ringing 'round my nursery door I said take this child, Lord From Tucson, Arizona Give her the wings to fly through harmony And she won't bother you no moreAfter a hefty breakfast at Hippo Hollow, I made the long drive back down the N4 to Johannesburg, arriving just in time for the end of the opening ceremony and a massive braai at M&J's place. We watched the first game together while scoffing chops, chicken and boerewors. SA didn't completely embarrass themselves, and Tshabalala's goal was a masterpiece, but Mokoena's shambolic decision not to move up with the rest of his defenders cost them a cheap equaliser. It was clear (other than to the myriad people who had clearly never actually watched a footy match before) that they were going to struggle to get out of the group, let alone win the tournament as some people on crack had been suggesting. Thus began a glorious few weeks of up to 4 matches a day to enjoy. I say "enjoy", as at that point I had not had to sit through 360 minutes of England playing. The first instalment of this utter misery was the following day, when we headed 90 mins north-west to Rustenburg, which is about as unattractive as it sounds. Before we went into the ground, there was a buzz of anticipation, mostly among people who are drunk at most England games and people who had never been to an England game. I swiftly set about crushing the hopes of any young England fans in the vicinity by pronouncing that they would play great footy for 15 mins, score a nice goal too early, and spend the rest of the game on the back foot before conceding a comical equaliser. Now why on earth did I not put money on that?The Royal Bafokeng Stadium is pretty horrible - reminiscent of a dodgy UK council athletics track with broken signboards, catering that consisted totally of watery hot dogs, and some concrete stands that are too shallow to allow any decent perspective. This was in fact so bad that the advertising hoardings blocked our view of the goal line, so when Dempsey hit a tame shot, it looked like Rob Green had got down comfortably and saved it, until suddenly people started cheering. Lame.Oh and the sodding vuvuzelas. Like having bees actually build their hive in your skull.On the Sunday I headed to OR Tambo and ensconced myself in the BA lounge, which is surprisingly delightful, and looks after the funny little mini-BA operation that runs in South Africa. Top marks for the cheese cake and some excellent triple-distilled local brandy which I supped whilst lounging on a nice sofa watching Ghana continue the trend of Africans who promise much but never seem to finish anything off. At football. Not making a general slur here.One courtesy upgrade (classic BA trick of moving the curtain back one row and leaving the middle seat empty) later, 2 hours of light snacking, and I landed in Cape Town where Dr Blond awaited. But what is this? Pissing rain? I did not sign up for that.Luckily it did clear up for a scenic drive up Table Mountain:A week in Cape Town passes pretty quickly, especially in the esteemed company of one of the great Jewish theologian-philosophers of our generation:Or at least that's what Dr Blond said to me when I left.I fitted in all the standard stuff - Robben Island, Waterfront, drive along the bays down to Cape Point with the delicious Vanessa, via some serious prawnage at Hout Bay, and back via some rather odd fish and chips at Kalk Bay, mooch around Long Street on game night, and hang out in Italian bars with Knuffelgirl:Cape Town has that same blessing as Sydney - topographical porn. It just never gets boring when from almost any vantage point, there is a delightful combination of rugged coastline and jagged mountain to look at. M[...]

Shongololo's African Adventure: Part 2 (Kruger)

2010-07-28T14:28:51.764+01:00

Joseph's face was as black as the night, and the pale yellow moon shone in his eyes. His path was marked by the stars of the southern hemisphere, and he walked the length of his days under African skies.I arrived at the Paul Kruger Gate just as the sun was setting behind the Drakensburg range that girds the western boundary of the Kruger National Park. Travel in the park is prohibited after dark, for reasons that became increasingly obvious as I made my way to Skukuza. Although the distance was only about 12km, the speed limit of 50km/h on tarred roads and 40km/h on gravel roads is rigorously enforced for the safety of animals and drivers alike.In the dimming light, I rounded the first bend in the road, just as a herd of buffalo came marauding across it. I put on the brakes and waited patiently as they plodded across, in no apparent hurry, and really rather inconsiderate of the fine that might await me if I got into camp after hours.Eventually I pulled into Skukuza Camp and made my way to my own little round chalet. The first thing you notice in the bush at night is the sky. No picture can really do it justice, it takes a while to grasp the sheer expanse of it, with shooting stars, a gigantic yellow moon, swirling galaxies and no noise but the sound of elephants trampling the undergrowth and the occasional vervet swinging in to try and work the monkey-proof bins.The next morning I woke up at 5am (AllanS, Freedmans, Corhamites, I do not lie), and hopped on an organised "morning ride" out into the bush with guides from the camp. Firstly may I point out just how damn cold it was. I had 2 jumpers, a coat, hat, scarf and gloves, and they provided a blanket on the truck, and I was still shivering. We pottered around for a couple of hours, seeing giraffes, an eagle, some glimpses of hyena, zebra and buffalo, but nothing particularly up-close and personal. I was beginning to wonder what on earth I was going to do to entertain myself for 4 days of this.Then after a brief nip back to camp to collect my own car, have a warm cuppa, take some stuff for lunch, and check the noticeboard which shows where fellow guests have spotted anything good, I drove out. First port of call, Skukuza Golf Club, just to see if it was really possible that there could be pristine greens and men in silly trousers moseying around in the middle of a park stuffed with the most ferocious animals on the planet (the Big Five are chosen because they are the deadliest if you don't nail them stone dead with your first shot).Turned out to be a good idea. As I drove up the track to the club, I came over a small hill and down below, trotting across the road, was a freaking leopard! I slowed right down and had a little look in the surrounding shrubs, but could only see what it was probably about to snack on - some ruddy impala. After a quick stop at a very nice wetland walk alongside the golf course (replete with said men in silly trousers looking unperturbed by the leopard in their car park), I decided to take my first real off-road drive, down a little track west of Skukuza. It proved to be a super decision, as I came across a small watering hole and was able to get within a few yards of my first elephant:He was all on his own having a merry old slurp from the waterhole and also giving himself a bit of a spraydown. He didn't seem at all perturbed that I was sitting there watching him. Also in the vicinity I saw my first warthogs, which are totally hilarious. They are like really gay pigs, with their prancing ballet feet somehow supporting some very portly midriff.Later on that day, I decided to take a little pre-dusk circuit not too far from camp. As I headed down the dusty tr[...]

Shongololo's African Adventure: Part 1 (TLV-Jozi-Kruger)

2010-07-14T22:39:06.692+01:00

This is the first episode of the story of my month in South Africa for the World Cup.First, some necessary preamble that Israelis and Jews particularly want to know - how did I do this entire trip for under £2,000 for the month? The whole plan started to come together way back in February when ex-Roomeus introduced me to a mate of his at the FA, who was able to procure a couple of "friends and family" tickets to each of the England games. Then a swift call to BMI Diamond Club Gold Line, and time to take advantage of a mispricing in their mileage awards structure - their assumption is that Middle East to Africa flights are direct from Dubai on Gulf Air or whatever, not from Tel Aviv via Europe on something more Yid-friendly (or Lufthansa). 28,000 miles (of which 20,000 were for signing up to the BMI AmEx card) and £400 later, and I was going out Swiss First Class and back South African/Lufty Biz Class. A quick call to Avis Preferred for 23 days of car hire for £530 (complimentary unlimited mileage and class upgrade), and some free accommodation at Freedmansdadsbestmate in Joburg and Dr Blond's in Cape Town, with some negotiated super deals for B&B's along the Garden Route and a lodge right in the middle of the Kruger, and I was sorted.But enough of that. Well okay, one quick photo. Of the limo that drove me across the tarmac from the Swiss First Lounge to the plane at Zurich.For the record, superb PJs that look like the Viet Cong in All Blacks gear, 16 year old Lagavulin in the Zurich lounge trumped by 18 year old Macallan in-flight, and this special Taste of Switzerland dinner menu:Langoustine and melon sushiScallop quenelles with abalone toppingNorwegian wild smoked salmonAccompanied by copious Laurent Perrier Grand Siècle -----Fillet of snapperBed of herbed rosti and fresh saladAccompanied by a super glass of Swiss-origin pinot blanc-----Rack of lamb cooked to taste (medium-rare please)Bed of wild rice, roasted vegAccompanied by most of a bottle of a spectacular red, I think it was Donatsch-----Selection of 6 different Swiss regional cheesesAccompanied by Swiss muscat AND a tumbler of very nice colheita port-----Passion fruit cheese cakeLindt & Sprungli trufflesAccompanied by proper Nespresso decaf-----Deep stupor-like sleep on my 6'4'' bed in my black PJsAccompanied by snoringSo after a total of 20 hours of travel, which was in fact entirely blissful, I arrived at OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg. The whole place was festooned with flags of the various participating nations in the World Cup, and there were already groups of fans doing the same thing as me, and getting in a week or so of sightseeing before the opening game.My first African experience was driving across town with Doron, my hosts' preferred cabbie, a nice guy with the most clapped-out Astra imaginable, as he swung it around every conceivable back route to try and avoid the worst of the rush hour traffic. Hiktik (hectic), as the locals say.M&A's place in Victory Park was a 5-bed, 2-bath monstrosity with 3 big receptions (including a full-sized bar), an outdoor diner, pool, tennis court, two garages and staff block, which was sadly unoccupied, meaning I had to occasionally do some tidying up after myself. All for less than the price of a 2-bedder in Borehamwood. Unusually for that part of town, no huge fences or gates, and minimal alarms due to three of the housemates, Jack, Dot and Bumper the cats.After a weekend acclimatising to the altitude and weather (winter there of course), mostly by eating a load of food, organic and largely veggie in the house due to my host, and balancing load of carcass elsewhere, I was ready to head to the Kruger. So I start[...]

Back!

2010-07-13T09:43:28.490+01:00

ORFTORFU: the deafening silence of Israel's "friends"

2010-03-18T15:02:48.077Z

ORFTORFU: Not In My Name

2010-03-03T19:06:43.649Z

As the originator of the acronym "ORFTORFU", I am proud to post this fantastic extract from Not In My Name: A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy. It sums up most of the ORFTORFUs in one elegant piece, and I will be adding a permanent link to it. This chapter was written by Chas Newkey-Burden. ‘When my father was a little boy in Poland, the streets of Europe were covered with graffiti, “Jews, go back to Palestine,” or sometimes worse: “Dirty Yids, piss off to Palestine.” When my father revisited Europe fifty years later, the walls were covered with new graffiti, “Jews, get out of Palestine.”’ -  Israeli author Amos Oz Everyone knows the proverb of the three wise monkeys who see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. As shown throughout this book, the modern hypocrite can be very skilled indeed at seeing and hearing no evil. When women are stoned to death in Arab states, when gay men are brutalised in Caribbean countries, the hypocrites’ ability to cover their ears and look the other way is remarkable. However, the triumvirate cannot be completed for when it comes to the state of Israel the modern hypocrite just cannot stop speaking evil. They will fail to condemn – and sometimes actually support – terrorists who blow up school buses and pizza parlours. They will march hand in hand with people who – quite literally – fundamentally disagree with every basic political principle they claim to hold dear. They will openly question whether Israel even has the right to exist. And all along the way, they will show themselves to be devastating hypocrites. The anti-Israel brigade would have us believe that the motivation for this vitriolic hatred of Israel is a genuine, compassionate concern for the fate of the Palestinian people. But do they really care about the Palestinians, or is their compassion somewhat selective, to put it politely? In reality, are they only interested in Palestinian suffering for as long as it gives them an opportunity to bash Israel? This hypocrisy is not entirely modern. When the West Bank and the Gaza strip were occupied by Jordan and Egypt, those occupations of ‘Palestinian land’ drew not a whimper of protest from the people who spat blood at the ‘occupation’ of those territories by Israel. When Jordan killed thousands of Palestinians and drove just as many of them from their refugee camps into Lebanon, Israel-bashers saw nothing wrong with that at all. Neither did they take issue with Kuwait when it deported Palestinians in the aftermath of the 1991 Iraq war. Why were they silent in all these cases? Because none of them gave them a chance to bash Israel, of course. Well established as this hypocrisy is, in the 21st century it has well and truly taken root as ‘supporting’ the Palestinians had become achingly fashionable. So when Hamas-sparked violence led to Palestinian students at a West Bank university being brutally beaten and shot by their own people, the Westerners who claim to support the Palestinians raised not a single word of protest or concern. Likewise, when Palestinian women are stabbed to death in “honour killings” across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, no anti-Israel Westerners lose a single moment’s sleep on their behalf. Likewise, when Palestinian children are hospitalised after being caught in the crossfire of fighting between rival Palestinian factions, there is not a word of condemnation from the West. When Palestinian children are deliberately forced into the line of fire by their own people, where is the concern from those in the West who claim to be their biggest support[...]

Pavlov's sheep

2010-03-02T22:53:14.354Z

UN consistency - more holes than a Swiss cheese

2010-02-27T00:27:29.178Z

In one of the biggest and most glaring cases of ORFTORFU ever, a senior spokesman of the UN has immediately and in the strongest terms, quite rightly condemned the outrageous statements of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, which included such morsels as "Let us wage jihad against Switzerland, Zionism and foreign aggression"and "Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Muhammad, God and the Koran."What makes this a nailed-on ORFTORFU is that it took a split second for the UN to come to the defence of Switzerland, which didn't even bother to be a member of the UN until 2002, whilst at the same time:- continuing to exhibit frightening institutional bias against Israel, which the UN actually CREATED through its vote in 1947- keeping silent about the outrageous statements made by Muslim and Arab leaders as well as numerous other people of influence- failing to rebut Gaddafi's simultaneous mention of Zionism and its obvious implication to mean Israel (and perhaps Jews everywhere), despite the revocation by the UN, under duress, of their Zionism = Racism policy in 1990- electing Libya to chair the ruddy UN Human Rights Commission! - actively promoting the same agenda as Gaddafi via UNRWA, an organisation that  inculcates Palestinian children to wage a similar jihad against the "Zionist Entity" (we don't sully our tongues by saying the word Israel) Absolute, rank hypocrisy. As usual. And people wonder why Israel couldn't give a shit what the UN thinks.[...]

The Fatah fairy tale

2010-02-21T15:22:16.823Z

A fascinating article by Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post: Israel's is the only government that can force the rest of the world to recognize that Abbas is not an ally. Fahmi Shabaneh is an odd candidate for dissident status. Shabaneh is a Jerusalemite who joined the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Service in 1994.Working for PA head Mahmoud Abbas and GIS commander Tawfik Tirawi, Shabaneh was tasked with investigating Arab Jerusalemites suspected of selling land to Jews. Such sales are a capital offense in the PA. Since 1994 scores of Arabs have been the victims of extrajudicial executions after having been fingered by the likes of Shabaneh.A few years ago, Abbas and Tirawi gave Shabaneh a new assignment. They put him in charge of a unit responsible for investigating corrupt activities carried out by PA officials. They probably assumed a team player like Shabaneh understood what he was supposed to do.Just as Abbas’s predecessor, Yasser Arafat, reportedly had full dossiers on all of his underlings and used damning information to keep them loyal to him, so Abbas probably believed that Shabaneh’s information was his to use or ignore as he saw fit.For a while, Abbas’s faith was well-placed. Shabaneh collected massive amounts of information on senior PA officials detailing their illegal activities. These activities included the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid; illegal seizure of land and homes; and monetary and sexual extortion of their fellow Palestinians.Over time, Shabaneh became disillusioned with his boss. Abbas appointed him to his job around the time he was elected PA head in 2005. Abbas ran on an anti-corruption platform. Shabaneh’s information demonstrated that Abbas presided over a criminal syndicate posing as a government. And yet rather than arrest his corrupt, criminal associates, Abbas promoted them. Abbas continued promoting his corrupt colleagues even after Hamas’s 2006 electoral victory. That win owed to a significant degree to the widespread public revulsion with Fatah’s rampant corruption.With Israel and the US lining up to support him after the Hamas victory, Abbas sat on his hands. Enjoying his new status as the irreplaceable “moderate,” he allowed his advisers and colleagues to continue enriching themselves with the international donor funds that skyrocketed after Hamas’s victory.Since 2006, despite the billions of dollars in international aid showered on Fatah, Hamas has consistently led Fatah in opinion polls. Rather than clean up their act, Abbas and his Fatah colleagues have sought to ingratiate themselves with their public by ratcheting up their incitement against Israel. And since Abbas has been deemed irreplaceable, the same West that turns a blind eye to his corruption, refuses to criticize his encouragement of terrorism. And this makes sense. How can the West question the only thing standing in the way of a Hamas takeover of Judea and Samaria?Recently, Shabaneh decided he had had enough. The time had come to expose what he knows. But he ran into an unanticipated difficulty. No one wanted to know. As he put it, Arab and Western journalists wouldn’t touch his story for fear of being “punished” by the PA.In his words, Western journalists “don’t want to hear negative things about Fatah and Abbas.”Lacking other options, Shabaneh brought his information to The Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh.On January 29, the Post published Abu Toameh’s interview with Shabaneh [...]

Should've gone to Specsavers

2010-02-18T17:47:29.829Z

Genius. Hat tip to Mr Sacerdoti.

The strong horse has bolted

2010-02-17T21:28:07.170Z

Thought this article was interesting in the light of the Dubai incident. It occurs to me that Israel wants to make it quite clear that it still has the odds-on favourites in its stable, and that its opponents are lame. Clichés and puns dispensed with, my point is that many of us have been trying to explain the thesis of Israel toughing it out in a rough neighbourhood for some time, to our well-meaning but naive and wet liberal Western friends. This piece explains it pretty succinctly. In the Mideast, bet on a strong horse BY DANIEL PIPES 16/02/2010 22:01 Lee Smith presents pan-Arab nationalism as an effort to transform mini-horses of national states into single super-horse. The violence and cruelty of Arabs often perplexes Westerners. Not only does the leader of Hizbullah proclaim “We love death,” but so too does, for example, a 24-year-old man who last month yelled “We love death more than you love life” as he crashed his car on the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge in New York City. As parents in St. Louis honor-killed their teenage daughter with 13 stabs of a butcher’s knife, the Palestinian father shouted “Die! Die quickly! Die quickly! ... Quiet, little one! Die, my daughter, die!” – and the local Arab community supported them against murder charges. A prince from Abu Dhabi recently tortured a grain dealer whom he accused of fraud; despite a video of the atrocity appearing on television internationally, the prince was acquitted while his accusers were convicted.On a larger scale, one accounting finds 15,000 terrorist attacks since 9/11. Governments throughout the Arabic-speaking countries rely more on brutality than on the rule of law. The drive to eliminate Israel still persists even as new insurrections take hold; the latest one has flared up in Yemen.Several excellent attempts to explain the pathology of Arab politics exist; my personal favorites include studies by David Pryce-Jones and Philip Salzman. Now add to these The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations (Doubleday, $26), an entertaining yet deep and important analysis by Lee Smith, Middle East correspondent for the Weekly Standard.Smith takes as his proof text Osama bin Laden’s comment in 2001, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse.” What Smith calls the strong-horse principle contains two banal elements: Seize power and then maintain it. This principle predominates because Arab public life has “no mechanism for peaceful transitions of authority or power sharing, and therefore [it] sees political conflict as a fight to the death between strong horses.” Violence, Smith observes, is “central to the politics, society, and culture of the Arabic-speaking Middle East.” It also, more subtly, implies keeping a wary eye on the next strong horse, triangulating and hedging bets.Smith argues that the strong-horse principle, not Western imperialism or Zionism, “has determined the fundamental character of the Arabic-speaking Middle East.” The Islamic religion itself both fits into the ancient pattern of strong-horse assertiveness and then promulgates it. Muhammad, the Islamic prophet, was a strongman as well as a religious figure. Sunni Muslims have ruled over the centuries “by violence, repression, and coercion.” Ibn Khaldun’s famous theory of history amounts to a cycle of violence in which strong horses replace weak ones. The humiliation of dhimmis daily remin[...]

What I don't buy in Dubai

2010-02-15T20:28:26.588Z

Let's get this straight. A Hamas terrorist is in Dubai to buy weapons and ship them to Gaza. Hamas admit this. Dubai admit this. He has blood on his hands. Hamas admit this. Dubai admit this. The guy winds up dead in strange circumstances, and arrest warrants are issued for 11 foreigners (British, Irish, French and German apparently), while 2 Palestinians are arrested in Dubai.Immediately, everyone blames Mossad; even the police chief in Dubai has "no doubts that it was 11 people holding these passports, and we regret that they used the travel documents of friendly countries." So what he clearly means by this odd "regret" is that naughty old Mossad have gone and abused the passports of these nice friendly countries as part of their nefarious plot.Now perhaps I missed something here. The guy was a known Hamas terrorist, in Dubai to buy arms. Hamas is a terrorist organisation proscribed by all those European countries, and selling them arms is completely prohibited. How is it that this police chief has found it so easy to trace the 11 foreigners and arrest the 2 Palestinians, and blame Mossad for the guy's death, but had no idea that a known terrorist was in his country shopping for guns? This was a man wanted for the deaths of 2 Israelis, in the middle of an act of war against Israel through the purchase of weaponry to use against it from Gaza. This was also a man who had many other enemies (including Palestinian "brothers" willing to help kill him, it seems).Let's assume for a minute that Mossad did pull this off (kol hakavod boys!). We can glean from the press reports that the hit squad were in "hot pursuit" from Syria, that the chap was not planning a beach vacation, and that the Dubai security forces were either blissfully unaware of his presence and intentions, or more likely, turning a blind eye. We can also surmise that showing their Israeli passports at the border might have delayed their "hot pursuit" by say, 10 or 20 years. Perhaps we can also assume that nobody much in British, Irish, French or German circles gives a crap if the Israelis do their dirty work for them, using naughty fake or stolen passports, or even ones supplied by said countries on a nod and a wink. They get to have their cake and eat it; dead Hamas terrorist prevented from buying arms in breach of EU embargo, AND blame the sneaky Israelis to boot!But for the moment we don't know if it has anything to do with Mossad (pa'am acher, boys!). Notwithstanding this, the world's media are mainly interested in this story because that is the direction it's going in.What I find just incredible is that the world's media have not picked up on the enormous irony of Hamas continuing to play the victim of Israeli "sieges" and "massacres", whilst having the time and resource to send operatives to Dubai (and apparently he was en route to Iran next) to buy and smuggle weapons. THAT is the real story here - the exposé on Hamas's priorities.And somehow the world just keeps on buying the Hamas sob-story, even though it is, like Dubai, totally bankrupt and built on sand.[...]

Tonge wronge - a letter to Nick Clegg

2010-02-11T18:56:45.901Z

Dear Mr CleggI note with considerable distress that your erstwhile former MP and current Lib Dem life peer in the House of Lords, Baroness Tonge, has once again gone on an excursion far beyond the bounds of UK politics into the contentious area of Middle Eastern affairs. Whilst I do not agree with her general opinion on Israel/Palestine, I do in that most British liberal way tend to support her right to it, however consistently misinformed it is. However, on this occasion, she has crossed even her own incredibly high water mark for civilized, informed debate on this matter, and possibly into the realm of anti-Semitism. I do not use this term lightly. In her recent statement she made on an article published in the Palestine Telegraph, of which she is a patron, Baroness Tonge has knowingly perpetuated a classic blood libel against Israel, the Jewish state. The article was based on outlandish allegations, that in turn were predicated on an earlier error-strewn story, which dredged up and manipulated a case many years ago in Israel that was similar to the Alder Hey scandal in the UK, with similar enquiries and changes of policy to reduce the chances of a repetition. This earlier story was dressed up as “Israelis harvesting Palestinian organs”, and the article in the Palestine Telegraph relayed a similarly sinister message about the Israeli involvement in Haiti.Baroness Tonge gives herself a derisory get-out clause by claiming that “To prevent allegations such as these — which have already been posted on YouTube — going any further, the IDF and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti.” Your spokesman claims that neither you nor she actually give credence to these claims, but this is totally disingenuous. The mere fact that she makes such a statement shows her underlying views on the subject to be absolutely clear.As Monroe Palmer, chair of the Lib Dem Friends of Israel, pointed out: “On this basis, there could be calls for an investigation to discover the ‘truth’ in the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”Baroness Tonge is not just an independent writer. She was an MP in your party, and has had a title bestowed upon her with your party’s support. Her views carry more weight, as they can be seen to represent the Lib Dems, particularly as she perversely holds the title of Lib Dem Spokeswoman for Health in the House of Lords, and are more widely read, especially as she gave the above statement to the British Jewish Chronicle, surely knowing it would reach a UK audience. Her despicable attacks against Israel, carefully veiled by her faint praise of the IDF’s field teams in Haiti and her attempt via your spokesman at a belated disclaimer of her personal opinion, cross the boundaries of decency and are on the borderline of anti-Semitism as they echo the classic blood libel against Jews going back millennia. It would be naive to suggest that she is not aware of this connection in the Jewish consciousness, if not most ordinary people’s – and that of the anti-Semites looking for mainstream respectability for their despicable views.I urge you to finally draw a line under her continued participation in your party by withdrawing the whip from her with immediate effect. She clearly will not apologise on any genuine basis for her libel, and she will be a liability to your party at the [...]

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