The shape of things to come – Israel’s new ambassador
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
As we reported in an earlier post Israel’s next UK ambassador is a settler extremist. The Jewish establishment in Britain is in for a rough ride!
Here Anselm Pfeffer writing in Haaretz is not in favour of the campaign organised by young, leftish Jews in Na’amod (British Jews Against the Occupation) to oppose her appointment.
He welcomes it, precisely as the extremist face of Israel, believing it will force British Jews to face up to the realities of Israel today.
This article was originally published by Haaretz on Fri 19 Jun 2020. Read the original here.
Tzipi Hotovely Is the Ugly, Extremist Face of Israel. British Jews Should Welcome Her
Israel has been represented for too long by urbane professionals who lull a liberal audience into forgetting they represent a Netanyahu government
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I quite agree. I’ve said all along that Regev outsmarted us and Hotovely is much more openly embarrassing. Mind you, the Israeli ambassador before Regev was an absolute idiot (with the accent on the last syllable).
Sorry, but this stance – welcome your enemies so their true faces are revealed – if applied across the board would be disastrous. I know what she stands for. I’m against it. I signed the petition and I encourage others to do the same. So that she knows what we stand for.
I never thought I would say this (because his writing is often clunky, and he is a major Labour=antisemitism pusher), but Anshel Pfeffer is absolutely right in the article above! But he is also absolutely wrong. He is right because Hotovely is so staggeringly and nakedly and unashamedly appalling, that she can be relied on to behave obnoxiously and so WILL shock many Jews. But he is also wrong because he ignores the importance of proving over and over that not all Jews are either supportive of Israel or quiescent, and Na’amod’s petition is one way of demonstrating that. It has jumped 500 signatories since yesterday, so is nearly at 1500 at the time I am writing. Given that it’s potential ‘constituency’ is currently mostly confined to adult practising reform and liberal Jews plus left-secular Jews, if it could reach 2000 signatories, that would be a pretty good pay-off.
“…she’s not going to convince any wavering Jews of the Netanyahu government’s case”. It’s not clear what positions the author’s Jews are meant to be wavering between, but even so, can we really be so sure of that? I suspect her effect will be to cultivate a larger and more militant right wing in the Zionist milieu.
I’m not sure why there’s this assumption that the Jewish establishment will be embarrassed by this individual. A few people may be, but it should not surprise us if she is generally accepted by them. It’s quite easy for a liberal veneer to rub off (and many of the people leading the BoD etc. are hardly liberal). The GOP has embraced Trump and the Tory party has moved over almost wholesale to Johnson and his coterie’s racism and class hatred.
I suspect someone 25 years ago could have written (did write?) a similar article about how Netanyahu would embarrass establishment Jews in Britain.
If you follow this logic then the last two chief Rabbi’s are poster boys for Netanyahu’s Israel and the British Jewish Community should react accordingly
Change the language
Which other civilised democratic country uses live ammunition against innocent men,women and children
Make that the rally cry, every conversation on Israel starts with that question
Otherwise there will never be progress