Prof. Steven Rose Should Be Ashamed
First published August 2002
Revised May 11, 2007. (All emphasis, mine.)
“We are Jews, born and raised outside Israel, who, under Israel’s “law of return”, have a legal right to Israeli residence and citizenship. We wish to renounce this unsought “right” because . . .”
A funny thing happened a few days ago when 48 British academics lost their way looking for a good PR idea to excite media interest in their decision to excoriate Israel for defending herself against a barbaric wave of terrorism which has claimed nealy 600 Jewish lives*, and wounded hundreds more. (*Mostly civilian.)
A Low Down PR Trick
They decided to write a letter to The Guardian declaring they would forgo their right as Jews, to become citizens of Israel! What makes this so funny (if not idiotic) is that they had never had any such intention whatever! I mean, does anyone in this wide world (aside from the Guardian!) really care? It was nothing more than a low down public relations trick – in bad taste. A sick joke.
No level headed academic would have stooped so low. It put them on a par with a fool who has no shares in any listed company on the London Stock Exchange threatening not to invest so long as Israeli companies are listed on the LSE.
He then calls a press conference outside the building and hollers his decision into a megaphone for all the world to hear.
The Dispensable Rose
Prof. Rose`s threat is disingenuous. He doesn’t hurt Israel one whit by living in Britain. We have gotten along famously without him and his sorry band. Though Britain perhaps should be worried to learn that they host a group of so called intellectuals capable of such childish antics.
Rose and company chose well to use The Guardian as their megaphone. The Guardian is so steeped in anti-Israel bias that they were unable, I guess, to see the silly side of Prof. Rose`s letter.
Good For A Laugh
Perhaps British Jews were confused by the professional standing of the group. They should have done what comes naturally when this letter appeared. They should have laughed their heads off. For a bad stupid, joke, is still bad and stupid even when declaimed by well educated people.
For Prof. Rose’s announcement to carry any weight at all, he and his co””signatories should have at least been on the aliyah list of the British Zionist Federation. The cancellation of their intention to immigrate would then have been a shock. (Don`t take the trouble to check.)
The Meat Of The Matter
Why has Israel been forced to defend its people against Palestinian barbarism, for the most part specifically targeted against our civilians? Here`s the record from September 2000 to July 2002 when Arafat inflamed his followers to launch his new Jew killing intifada.
13,890 attacks excluding rock throwing.
593 babies, mothers, sons, daughters, fathers, grandmothers, and grandfathers massacred.
4,379 injured, many becoming permanent or semi permanent invalids with missing limbs or screws, nails and shrapnel in their bodies.
To give British readers a more realistic perspective I have translated these numbers into UK population values by a multiplication factor of 10. Thus we get:
138,900 attacks!
5930 massacred!
40,790 injured!
In less than 2 years.
How Would Britain Have Coped?
How would Britain have coped with that kind of barbarism from the IRA? Would Britain have taken a laid back attitude as they continually caution Israel? Not on your nelly!
And what would Prof. Rose and company have then said had Britain gotten tough with such mass murder and mayhem? Would they have threatened Britain with their departure . . . perhaps, dare I say it, to Israel?
Shocker
Their letter to the Guardian includes:
“We do not wish to identify ourselves with what Israel is doing. We wish to express our solidarity with all those who are working for a time **when Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip can be lived in by people without any restrictions based on so-called racial, cultural, or ethnic origins.”
It beggars the brain that the professors are totally unaware that Israel is already lived in by people without restrictions based on “so called racial, cultural, or ethnic origins”. Israel hosts host sizeable communities of Arabs, Christians, Bedouin, Russians, Kurds, Circassians, Druze, Armenians and others.
Would you believe Rose’s group of intellectuals and academics are apparently unaware that Gaza is Judenrein and virtually Christian-rein? And that Christians are being forced out of the West Bank by Palestinian threats and continued harassment? The Arab terrorist campaign is clearly intended to remove the the last Jew too.