Knowledge

Shattered illusions – Israel debunked

Forget the words “zionism”, “semitism” and “Jewish”: any British politician who denies Israel’s right to exist should be sent straight out of the House of Commons.

Jeremy Corbyn and his ragtag team of commies want to castigate the 2% pocket of the Middle East which is an oasis of democracy, women’s rights and technological innovation.

Yes, Israel, or ‘USrael’ to the conspiracy believing, anti-capitalist hippie keyboard warriors who think citing a YouTube video is valid rhetoric in an argument. I know many people, ‘useful idiots’, as Trotsky would call them who have a problem with Israel. Here I’d like to briefly bust a few myths about the world’s most contentious state:

Myth One – Israel has invaded Palestinian soil

Israel, or USrael to keyboard warriors with no appreciation of the concept of Pax Americana is a sovereign state created at the end of world war two on land which was vastly under-populated and inhabited by Palestinians, people who were denied any sense of nationality under Ottoman rule, a fact even said by Yasser Arafat.

Myth Two – Israel was created to be a religiously Jewish state

For instance, Theodore Herzl the founder of the state was an atheist, motivated by the sole desire to create a safe haven for Jews being prosecuted in Europe. The land initially proposed was in Uganda, and Herzl’s dream for his Jewish state was one where German would be the native language. Another relevant atheist is Golda Meir, a woman who signed the founding document of the state and served as it’s prime minister from 1967-1971.

Myth three – America and Israel have always been steadfast allies

America was one of Israel’s most vocal critics following the 1956 Sinai campaign and they again critiqued Israel for their pre-emptive strike in the 1967 war.

Myth four – Israel deliberately kills Palestinian civilians

The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) makes phone calls and sends text messages in Arabic to civilians residing in buildings designated for attack. The people they are bombing? Hamas, a fundamentalist group who use suicide bombers and don’t recognise Israel’s right to exist.

Jeremy Corbyn; ever the utopian optimist would like us to get rid of our nuclear weapons. The only way I would be happy to get rid of our nukes would be if we gifted them to Israel, the undisputedly sovereign nation that needs them more than anybody else in the world.

They are the underdog, the survivor, the Leicester in the world of politics.

Desire to support victims and the wrongful attribution of who the victims are, borders on perverse. As Golda Meir herself articulated it:

“We are one tiny Jewish state and there are other twenty Arab States with vast territories, endless oil and billions of dollars.”