“It will take too long.” “It is far too bureaucratic.” “It is far too mild.”
They are just a few of the more polite comments I’ve heard in relation to the disciplinary process that the Board of Deputies’ executive officers have commenced in response to the letter in which 36 “deputies” shamefully (and utterly erroneously) blamed Israel for the ceasefire breakdown and more mendaciously, they allowed it to seem that they represented Britain’s main Jewish representative body, and therefore made it seem that mainstream Jews were as blind as them and their accomplices in treachery.
I think I speak for many mainstream British Jews when I say that despite the news cycle having moved on, the majority of British Jews remain obsessed with April 15, when that mendacious missive from 36 deputies was published in the Financial Times precipitating all those headlines inferring that “British Jews” were validating the criticisms of Israel’s actions.
The FT, of course, ate up this Jew-on-Jew conflict and enhanced the letter-writers’ status with a separate news story that gave a boost to the group’s significance by talking of “dozens” in its opening para rather than the less impressive but more accurate “around 10 percent” or “a small, breakaway group.”
36 Board memners write letter to FT opposing war in Gaza
The letter sparked – as all concerned knew it would in the current climate – endless headlines inferring that “British Jews” believed the terrorists lies and were joining the condemnation of Israel. But “British Jews” had not joined the condemnation of Israel because unlike the letter writers, the majority of British Jews do not believe lies from Iranian surrogates and Islamist jihadist terrorists who are actively seeking the annihilation of Israel.
So while I would say that in the nine days since its publication, my fury has abated somewhat, I’d be lying. And even if it had abated slightly it was instantly reignited by Tuesday’s statement from the Board of Deputies declaring that the 36 were “subject to a complaints procedure” that was “likely to take at least four weeks”. And based on social media posts and comments about the “complaints procedure”, I think most mainstream British Jews also remain furious.
And I think that even applies to Jews who are far from supportive of Mr. Netanyahu and his government.
Those Jews also remain furious and aggrieved at this virtue-signalling letter and its fall-out, because Jews who know Israel’s history and Jews who genuinely “love Israel” know that attempts to annihilate the Jewish state (including by murderous terrorism and by trying to delegitimise it) pre-date Mr Netanyahu’s arrival in the PM’s office by some 70 years.
Jan Shure
The version of events which the 36 seem to believe is the terrorists version that’s based on lies, distortions and fabrications, and completely ignores the demonstrable realities of Gaza i.e that it is an Islamist terrorist stronghold in which Hamas, an Iranian-surrogate terrorist militia, have created a Jihadist infrastructure of tunnels and command posts within which it deliberately, shamefully – and shamelessly – uses civilians as human shields in pursuit of its objective of erasing Israel from the map.
The problem with the “complaints procedure” is that in four weeks’ time, at the end of a lumbering, bureaucratic process, no matter what “sentence” the Board hands down, it will be so long after the original controversy and so inconsequential in “news” terms, that the coverage it will receive – if any – in the national press will not begin to erase the entirely erroneous perception of widespread Jewish belief in a terrorist narrative. Nor will it erase the perception that mainstream Jews joined the condemnation of Israel.
That said, I also recognise that some of the criticism expressed by the letter-writers is being openly aired in Israel. But Israelis vote. Israelis serve in the army. Israelis live or die by the actions of their government so any criticism, however harsh, by any Israeli – ideally inside Israel – is fine by me (and I imagine fine by most British Jews.)
But criticism of the Israeli government in Israel is very different from a renegade group of brain-washed, virtue-signalling useful idiots using manipulation – possibly even outright deception – to mislead by creating the illusion that their personal misguided and unrepresentative views are a majority view.
And not just misleading, but actively dishonest because a week or so earlier the Board had dismissed a call from the group to release a statement condemning “Israel’s decision” to “resume” its “offensive in Gaza,” on the grounds that the group was echoing the Islamist terrorists’ version rather than the facts.
But despite having been informed that their version of events was based on Hamas’s version of events, or that they did not reflect the Board’s view, they refused to be deflected from their course, and went ahead with their letter regardless.
As previously stated, any criticism of the Israeli government by any Israel is fine – though, I repeat, ideally if expressed in Israel. But not so fine in Britain at a time when British Jews are fighting a tsunami of misinformation and disinformation about Israel that has led to a terrifying surge in anti-Jewish racism.
And at such a time, it is especially abhorrent that a group whose members clearly base their view of the conflict on the very same misinformation and disinformation, has made it seem that their profoundly misguided views are “representative” of British Jews.
Through their – at best “disingenuous” – actions, this unrepresentative minority has helped to invert reality by making it seem that a majority of British Jews believe the Gaza lies and the terrorist distortions. They have made us appear complicit in Israel-hate. But most heinous of all, they have turned us into ammunition that Israel’s enemies can use against Israel and us.
Their actions are unforgiveable, and the BoD executive need to deal with these deluded, virtue-signallers more swiftly, more decisively, in a way that the media will find it harder to ignore.
- Jan Shur is a freelance writer
