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Ha'aretz: British MP Galloway Denies 'Saluting the Martyrs'
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uploaded : Friday 24th May 2002 at 01:05 |
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by : The Editor |
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Like me, many people were glued to television on September 11, 2001 and for several days afterwards. For the first time since the assassination of President Kennedy, commercial channels suspended advertising breaks and all regular programming was cancelled.
Amongst the hours of viewing in which I indulged on those chilling days last September was a short interview with Lawrence Eagleburger, a former senior US cabinet member under President Bush Senior. I did not record the interview and must paraphrase it here from memory, but the gist of his statement went something like this:
Israel had tried to warn the United States last summer of possible mega-terror attacks that might involve hijacking of aircraft and flying them into tall buildings or government installations around the nation. Eagleburger expressed his concern that ‘these guys were sent packing’ and he suggested that in the future, countries who are worried about terror stop picking on Israel and instead show some respect for the brilliance of the Israeli intelligence community.
Now, as tension mounts once again and talk of s heightened level of terror in Israel, the USA and Europe looms over us, we are hearing of the Israeli experts being deployed to various countries to provide training and advice. One expert has remarked to a journalist, ‘I think it might be too little, too late.’
At this point the intellectual Left of Europe and of MIT and Harvard, will shout ‘We would not even need any of this if Israel had stopped its brutality years ago..’ Well, having been on the Left myself for many years, I can now say that I have come to the sad conclusion that if Israel were (God forbid) to disappear tomorrow, extremists would find some other reason to create death and mayhem. It is alleged the person who killed Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands was angry about the politician’s fur policy. I have seen the rage of anti-Starbucks maniacs shouting at me over dinner tables in restaurants, a rage of which those of us who have been on the receiving end are sure could easily become homicidal.
In ‘Ha’aretz’ of 21 May, Sharon Sadeh reported that British Jewish volunteers were receiving training from Zaka, the Haredi rescue service that recovers human remains after suicide attacks. A Scotland Yard delegation, led by senior officer Barbara Wilding, has been receiving intensive briefing in Israel and Sri Lanka, because intelligence services have reason to believe that suicide bombers are coming to Britain, to use Dick Cheney’s favourite phrase, ‘big time.’
In the meantime, Britain – the birthplace of Shoah denier David Irving and neo-fascist Lady Birdwood – has an assortment of MPs who not only support the Palestinian cause with passion but who, according to Ha'aretz, think suicide bombers are heroes. (Yes, you read it here.)
Although as reported today in 'The Jewish Chronicle ' he fiercely denies it, on May 2, according to ‘Ha’aretz,’ George Galloway MP (one of the leading pro-Palestinian campaigners in the British Parliament) spoke at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and was reported to have said that those present in the room should support the PLO and assist them in wiping out the Zionist entity. [Editor's Note: We relate this as reported in Ha'aretz.]
Tom Paulin, the Irish poet who called for American religious Jews who make aliyah to be ‘shot,’ is still flourishing on BBC’s primetime Arts Review TV programme, is roaming free. Mr Paulin's remarks -- and Mr Galloway's, if corroboration emerges -- could be seen to contravene the EU's anti-incitement laws but Tony Blair and Europe have done nothing to censure him.
In April, the Palestinian supporters’ rally in central London culminated in a ceremonial burning of the Israeli flag and of the Stars and Stripes. Not one person in the British government spoke up to condemn this insult to our ally, the United States. This past weekend another similar rally took place, and Ha’aretz provides a picture of a Palestinian showing a suicide bomb belt in Trafalgar Square. This has not been mentioned in any British media.
The Israeli Embassy in London was attacked last week by a group of twenty pro-Palestinian activists. This was never reported – allegedly not to frighten the Jewish community here – but I would not be at all surprised if the same people who have screeched at me about Starbucks were amongst the attackers.
This is a most ugly and terrible time for Jews. We were given a small strip of land in 1947 after Europe tried to annihilate us from the earth. Now, Europeans and British MPs lead movements that effectively cripple, and could ultimately destroy the Jewish State.
Laurence Eagleburger’s warning about belittling Israel may have been the most hauntingly prophetic sound byte to have come out of any of the endless hours of talking heads in the aftermath of September 11th. I fear it is all, indeed, ‘too little , too late.’
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