Jewish fate

It is no coincidence that in the same week the spokesman for the IHH Turkish extremists on board the Mavi Marmara ship told Israelis to "go back to Auschwitz," Helen Thomas, distinguished White House reporter of Lebanese Christian origin, told Jews to "go back to Poland and Germany." This attitude is rife among all Muslims, all Arabs and many others too. It shows how anti-Israelism segues easily into classic anti-Semitism. Ironically it is directly opposite to what was said to me when I was growing up Jewish in London's East End, when the standard phrase was "go back to Palestine," or "go back to where you came from." Remember Britain was the Mandatory Power in Palestine, and was supposed to be setting up a Jewish "homeland" there, although in 1938 they illegally reversed course. I suppose the kids saying this had no idea where Jews came from (Eastern Europe or Palestine), but these were the phrases they heard from their parents. Well, you could say that I took their advice, I got out and came to Israel, and now they want me to go back. What's a Jew to do? But, the answer is that I'm here to stay and so are all us Zionists, so the rest of the world should get used to it.

Some have commented that I am wasting my time writing these missives, that those who try to break the blockade of Gaza intend to destroy Israel and those in the West who read about it are not interested in hearing Israel's side. They have already made up their minds: Israel is the irritant, Israel is the cause of all the problems, Israel has stolen the land from the Palestinians, and therefore Israel must be destroyed (even though it contains 6 million Jews). Simple as that!

Truth is supposed to be "the first casualty of war," but, I cannot desist from truth-telling. Some think that everything is relative and there is no such thing as actual "truth" or history. To me what actually happens matters. Like most of you I expected that there would be some resistance to the IDF commandos on that Turkish flotilla, but if the commandos had shot down innocent civilians I would have been among the first to condemn that. But, as it happens we can see that that was not the case. Five ships out of the six that comprised the flotilla were boarded and taken to Ashdod without any resistance or violence. Also, the "Rachel Corrie" passengers showed no resistance and there was no violence. But only on the Mavi Marmara was there violence that was obviously planned and prepared in advance and Israeli commandos were beaten, stabbed, shot and gravely injured as seen in clear-cut videos. I trust our soldiers not to attack civilians, but these were not civilians, they were trained Islamic thugs. Now, if that is only my version, or Israel's version, so be it. But, if it is the truth, no honest man can deny it. In fact, the major Turkish newspaper Hurriyet published photos of beaten and bleeding Israeli soldiers and confessed that the followers of IHH had deliberately tried to kill and/or capture them. They admit it! Reuters and some other news organizations published purposely cropped versions of these photos. It was revealed by the IDF that three injured naval commandos had in fact been captured and taken down a deck and placed in a cabin together, but were released by their comrades as the fighting continued and one officer had also been thrown overboard and one was shot.

In order to find out the details of what actually happened there needs to be a commission of enquiry, but that does not need to be an international commission, a purely Israeli commission with neutral judges should suffice with internbational observers. Would the US agree to an international enquiry to investigate US "crimes" in Afghanistan, did Britain agree to an international enquiry on its "illegal" attack on the Argentinian Malvinas Islands, did NATO agree to a UN enquiry of its intervention in Serbia over the Kossovo invasion? The answer is an emphatic NO! In Israel there is a strong need to know what happened, not only for the facts alone, but also so we can learn from the mistakes that were made. Also Israel has a strong tradition of such investigations, after every war we have had such commissions, and some of them have been extremely critical of the Israeli Government and forces (such as after the 2006 Second Lebanon War). That is what happens in a democracy.

So, even if most people have made up their minds in advance, or don't care, or are antagonistic, we will pursue the truth and I will report it as best I can. If the rest of the world chooses to ignore that, it is a problem, but one hopes that in a democracy truth will eventually prevail.