May 10, 2014

Israel advocates becoming "discredited, irrelevant and marginal"

Cor, this is exciting. The Board of Deputies of British Jews is starting to realise that the game is up for hasbara, in particular over the merry dance formerly known as the, ahem, peace process.

See this in Jewish News:

Confidential documents have shed new light on concerns of the Board
of Deputies ahead of the suspension of Middle East peace talks and their
fears of over the potential for growing polarisation within the
community over Israel.


A draft document seen by the Jewish News looks to set out the possible consequences whether the nine-month process ends in failure or with an agreement, as well as to examine how community leaders should respond. It is believed to have been written around six weeks ago......


It warns: “The risk of arguing for the fault of failure lying squarely
with the Palestinians while many will at least partially blame Israel,
is that supporters of Israel will become increasingly discredited,
irrelevant and marginal.”


Alright, they still want to have their cake and eat it, "many will at least partially blame Israel" indeed!  Just a quick reminder here that Israel is the one that keeps building or expanding racist colonies in the West Bank and blockading Gaza and it was Israel who reneged on the commitment to release prisoners.  The Palestinian negotiators response was to apply to join some toothless international organisations and, after Israel had broken off talks, the PLO, with whom Israel was no longer dealing, went for a unity pact with Hamas with whom Israel had not been dealing in the first place.  This actually means that the breakdown is entirely down to Israel, much as it was back in 2000.  The difference now is that the Board of Deputies, for zionism in the UK, recognises that the old blame the Palestinians card isn't going to work this time, or ever again.

So what do we know?  The Board appears to know it is now becoming out of touch with the UK Jewish community and more general public opinion.  Its support for Israel is as firm and uncritical as ever but it has to watch what is supposed to be its raison d'être: British Jews.  Its real raison d'être has been Israel for decades now.  But it now recognises that to support Israel and to honour its members is a balancing act.  How it performs that is very much an open question.


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