Churchill Lives
Sometimes we (I’m one of the worst) paint with too broad a brush. Washington is seedy, so that means there are no good men and women in politics. That sort of thing.
For me, Israel is always a black-and-white issue. I tend to dismiss groups that are not exactly on the right side of history regarding Israel and the Palestinians. It’s a tension I live with. Another example is the Palestinians themselves. I know some good ones, including a biblical pastor. I can see with my own eyes when I visit sweet Arab children playing outside. Many Palestinian families only want what we all want: to be left alone to raise their families and find meaningful work.
I’ve always been interested in the relationship between Great Britain and the Jews. Of course we all know the story of British politician Arthur Balfour. A former prime minister, he was serving as foreign secretary in 1917 when the famous “Balfour Declaration” was issued; the document gave Britain’s consent for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. In the middle of WW 1, people expected this to happen quickly. It would take more than 30 years, but it was proof that there were pro-Israel people in that government.
The UK of course has had an uneven relationship with Israel in the past few decades. Post-war, anti-Semites burrowed into Parliament, and the Royal Family isn’t exactly Zionist. Current PM Boris Johnson has made pro-Israel statements, but I was most heartened this week to hear that current Home Secretary Priti Patel wants to ban Hamas and marginalize the group for what it is, a terrorist entity. She does not differentiate between its “military and political wings.”
According to a report from CTV News:
“Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is in charge of law and order issues, said she would proscribe the group ‘in its entirety, including its political wing.’
“’This is an important step, especially for the Jewish community,’ Patel said during a speech in Washington. ‘Hamas is fundamentally and rabidly antisemitic.’”
Now, this has to pass in Parliament, no certain thing, but it signals that people are starting to find their courage after three decades of the Oslo disaster. Perhaps it’s part of the Trump Effect—the ability to find reality in the fairy tale world of international diplomacy.
A Hindu and member of the Conservative Party (her hero was Margaret Thatcher), Patel seems to understand the world. As early as 2015, she supported PM David Cameron’s decision to bomb ISIS targets in Syria.
Predictably, Al Jazeera in reporting on this, took a swipe at Patel:
“In 2017, Patel was forced to resign as Britain’s international development secretary after she failed to disclose meetings with senior Israeli officials during a private holiday trip to the country.
“She met then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-opposition leader Yair Lapid.”
Big deal? So she met with them. The Left does far worse than that every second. Remember all of the traitor John Kerry’s illegal meetings with thugs and dictators that work to harm the U.S.? No accountability at all for the anti-American former senator.
Israeli PM Naftali Bennett took to Twitter to applaud the move by the Brits:
“Hamas is a radical Islamic group that targets innocent Israelis & seeks Israel’s destruction. I welcome the UK’s intention to declare Hamas a terrorist organization in its entirety — because that’s exactly what it is.”
All this shows that Israel is not completely without friends.