Posted on 12/07/2001 1:44:47 AM PST by DentsRun
Matthew Lewin: Don't rely on my support just because I'm Jewish
'My own disaffection started when anti-Arab "settlers" began to invade Palestinian territory'
07 December 2001
Dr Giora Goodman, a brilliant young Israeli academic, gave a lecture in London this week in which he attempted to explain why the liberal British media, once the greatest supporters of the Jewish state, are now perceived by the Jewish community as implacably anti-Israel and pro-Arab.
It is a fascinating topic. I remember when I was an enthusiastic young Zionist in South Africa in the early 1960s, and when I lived in Israel for two years in 1963 and 1964, the Jewish state was the darling of the world's liberal and left-wing press. It was the brave new nation state defending itself against numerous hostile neighbours, casting off the mantle of the Holocaust, and engaged in an exciting process of democratic socialism that might indeed have become a light unto the nations.
Even in the 1940s, when Jews were killing British soldiers in Palestine, there were British newspapers that reflected an understanding of and even sympathy for the desire and need for a Jewish homeland.
Support for Israel in the British press was boosted by the Six-Day War in 1967 and the more desperate and difficult war of 1973, as well as by spectacular actions such as the rescue of hostages at Entebbe airport. The image was still of the brave David triumphant against impossible odds.
At the same time there was little, if any, understanding of the plight and aspirations of the Palestinians. When, for example, in 1967 the Israelis bulldozed scores of Arab houses in Jerusalem to create the existing open space alongside the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall, as it used to be called), it was certainly not widely depicted as something outrageous.
So what happened in the last 25 years that turned some of Israel's natural supporters – including me – into critics, and caused the liberal press to change its attitude? Dr Goodman put forward some elegant explanations in his lecture, including the argument that the Jewish community, once predominantly inclined to support Labour, is now much more evenly spread across the left/right spectrum and has therefore shifted its allegiance to right-wing papers (which, ironically, were hostile to Zionism in the early days). The liberal newspapers, the argument goes, simultaneously discovered that there were millions of Labour-supporting British Muslims out there who were potential new readers and supporters.
Then there were the political changes in Israel – the sudden arrival of tough, right-wing governments, on and off from the late Seventies, which has reinvigorated the semi-dormant conviction in hard-left circles that Israel is just another arm of Western imperialism.
The trouble is that these explanations – which rummage around in the general washing basket of shifting allegiances, historical change, political tendencies and commercial imperatives facing the press – just do not confront the brutal realities and activities to which growing numbers of people in the modern world will no longer turn a blind eye.
My own disaffection with Israel started when rabidly anti-Arab "settlers" began to invade Palestinian territory; when Israel seemed to have abandoned its former preparedness to seek peace from within the pre-1967 borders; when aggression began to replace patience and diplomacy; when the concept of the "pre-emptive strike" was invented; and appalling suffering and loss of life followed the ill-conceived invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Then there were the intifadas: children being shot down in the streets, Israeli murder squads working with full state approval, the destruction of civilian homes.
I watched in despair as Israel formed itself into another South Africa, trying to defend the indefensible, accusing anyone who disagreed of being ignorant and biased.
I have been accused, much like The Independent's correspondent Robert Fisk, of being biased in favour of the Arabs. In fact, I hold no brief for the impotent, incompetent and corrupt leadership of the Palestinians, and I detest the Palestinian extremists who murder and maim Israelis in order to kill any possibility of the peace process resuming.
I particularly resent being described as a "self-hating Jew" who cravenly worries about how Israel's behaviour will embarrass me and reflect on me as a member of the Jewish community in Britain. Actually, I am perfectly at peace with my Jewishness, and I am not embarrassed by Israel any more than I was embarrassed by the apartheid regime I rejected earlier in my life.
What I object to strongly is any suggestion that Israel has the right to claim me as one of its natural supporters, just because I am Jewish, and irrespective of the way it behaves. And I will not be told that criticism of Israel is just a matter of politics, bias, commercial allegiances and anti-Semitism.
matthewlewin@compuserve.com
The writer is a former editor of the 'Hampstead & Highgate Express'
Terrorism, it converts liberals into conservatives. The liberal press, never under fire will never change. So now that Israel has become conservative, the Liberal press has abandoned it, only to join up with the terrorists. But that is what liberalism is, socialism with a facemask.
Such people never have to lift anything heavy.
Such people never need to worry about responsibility. For they never have any, and perhaps that's just as well. I would have sympathy for any poor soul for whom Mr. Lewin might be responsible.
Yet, I wonder how the intellectual Mr. Lewin explains explains the Barak regime. What went wrong there?
The best thing for useless pundits like Lewin would be for Hamas to win. Then you would have no Jews left in Palestine. That's OK though because he would wax intellectual about the negative side if the Palestinians without ever having to test a sollution to that problem either.
He says Israel can't count on his support just because he is a Jew. My guess is they can live with that just fine. When a man needs to act, then take responsibility, he can never count on the Lewins of the world for support or help or anything else. All Lewin will ever be good for is saying things that sound feeling or caring. My guess is, though, and this is a guess as I know him only from what I read here, he has never REALLY felt of cared about much of anything or anyone.
It's so glorious to able to sit on your fat ass in the UK Mr.Letwin, while others do the heavy lifting for Judaism.
In the beginning, Israel was Socialistic and played footsies with the USSR. South Africa is now ruled by avowed tribalist COMMIES ( starting with Mandela ) , soooooo, this rabid bleeding heart / lefty is naturally against Israel now that they are no longer left leaning, and utterly confused in his position on South Africa.
Bullfeathers.
There never was a dormant belief that Israel was an "arm of Western imperialism," when it was founded, Israel enjoyed the support of the Soviet Union (which saw it as a way to FIGHT Western imperialism, because it was the former colony of Palestine becoming its own country). Israel did NOT have the support of the business elites in America, who were more worried about cheap oil.
OK. How about "self-enamored leftist knucklehead"?
I'll say..
The left always lies.
The left are bullies and cowards.
The left has murdered hundreds of millions of people and millions of unborn children.
The left has turned universities into citidels of intellectual fascism.
The left wants to destroy the United States, Israel and any other country that stands for freedom.
May they all rot in hell.
I don't think any of the people so described hate themselves. It's those other Jews they hate. This BTW would also apply to the Neturei Karta talibanchiks.
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