Rael Isaac

ANGLICANS VERSUS ISRAEL

George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, told The Jerusalem Post he was "ashamed to be an Anglican." He referred to the overwhelming vote on Feb. 6 by the General Synod of the Church of England (backed by the current Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams) to divest from companies whose products are used by the Israeli government in Judea and Samaria.

A counter motion by Anglicans for Israel was not even permitted to be presented to the Synod. After the vote this group issued a statement: "The continuing demonisation of Israel will increase anti-Semitism. It is almost beyond belief that the Anglican Church, at the behest of some clergymen who seem to be motivated by a combination of liberation theology and a strange, Islamicized version of New Testament theology, should seek to collaborate with the forces of Radical Islam -- which destroyed the Middle East's only once-Christian state, Lebanon, while the Church largely looked the other way -- to deliver the last corner of Western values, religious liberty and democracy in the region to Wahhabist Islam."

Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the British Jewish Board of Deputies, summed it up: "Nothing Israel ever will do will be right, while nothing the Palestinian will do will ever be wrong." An even more bleak assessment came from Dr. Irene Lancaster of the Center for Jewish Studies at Manchester University: "The writing is on the wall for the Jews of Great Britain, 350 years after they settled here."

MEANWHILE AT OXFORD

Not to be outdone, Oxford University offered its premises to what journalist Melanie Phillips calls a week of Jew-hatred "dedicated to declaring Israel an apartheid state, with speakers, films and more" all designed to vilify Israel. Phillips notes that Oxford's chancellor is Chris Patten, who achieved notoriety as a European commissioner when he blocked an inquiry into the diversion of EU funds for terror activities by the Palestinian Authority. According to Phillips he subsequently evinced a desire to mend fences with the Jewish community. This seems an odd way to begin.

JOHANESS RAU

A former President of Germany, a great friend of Jews and Israel, Johannes Rau died on January 27 at the age of 75. In 2000, as President, Rau became the first person to speak German in the Israeli Parliament. He made a moving plea for forgiveness: "With the people of Israel watching, I bow in humility before those murdered, before those who don't have graves where I could ask them for forgiveness...I am asking for forgiveness for what Germans have done, for myself and my generation, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, whose future I would like to see alongside of the children of Israel."
May his memory be a blessing.

MEMO TO USEFUL IDIOTS

On behalf of the U.S. government, James Wolfensohn headed off to the Persian Gulf on a familiar mission -- raising money for the Palestinian Authority. He was last heard from when he raised $14 million from American Jewish donors to purchase greenhouses from the expelled Jewish farmers for Palestinian Arabs. While there was extensive looting immediately after the deportations, the greenhouses were restored to operation. The PA hired terrorist militias to guard them who reverted to type, robbing them instead. Using bulldozers to break the iron supports of the frames and removing every bit of piping and irrigation computers, this time the thugs did irreparable damage. The greenhouses are history.

The U.S. rationale in sending Wolfensohn on his current mission is reportedly that if we do not find money for the PA, Iran will fund it. But if President Bush says he will cut off U.S. funds to Hamas, what is the point of raising money for it in the Persian Gulf?

AFSI APOLOGIZES

Due to a failure of oversight by the AFSI office, a website with AFSI's name -- now closed down -- featured the paranoid fantasies of Barry Chamish. We apologize especially to Steven Plaut and Daniel Pipes, special targets of Chamish’s obsessions. AFSI totally repudiates Chamish. Indeed Outpost was one of the first to expose his ludicrous conspiracy theories (see From the Editor, January 2002 and March 2002). In the spirit of Chamish we offered (March 2002) our own conspiracy theory. One of Chamish's absurd notions was that Shimon Peres was implicated in the death of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi (who was murdered by Arab terrorists). We argued that Chamish was planted by Shimon Peres to destroy the credibility of the right.

Chamish is to be pitied -- and ignored. The real culprits are those on the right who defend him and purvey his imbecilities.

AN ISRAELI POLL

Israel's Geocartographic Institute conducted a poll of the Israeli public and discovered that 70% believed the implementation of the Gaza disengagement contributed nothing to peace and 50% disapproved of any future unilateral withdrawals.

Yet polls show Kadima and Labor, between them, will obtain the votes of a clear majority. The promise of future unilateral withdrawals is what front-runner Kadima chiefly has to offer. As for Labor, it's hard to imagine any red lines in its thirst for surrender.

If you've dug yourself into a hole — and know it’s a hole — dig deeper. That seems to be the motto of the Israeli public.

DREAMPOLITIK

From the ever-wonderful Diana West:

"There comes a point, sometimes, when logic is denied, reason is abandoned, and that vital connection to reality is severed....Take President Bush's analysis of the PA election results. 'The people are demanding honest government, he said. 'The people want services….’

"Honest government? Services? Hamas is 'honest,' all right, when it comes to its blood-lust for Jews, and maybe it can deliver to its constituents 'services' related to Israel's destruction, but I doubt that's what the president had in mind. But neither did he have in mind anything connected to the reality that Palestinians have voted for terror with no 'peace process' (Hamas), not a 'peace process' with terror (Fatah). Not much actually separates Hamas from Fatah, but it's enough to send the global-erati over the edge.

"Once, there was realpolitik; now we are deeply into dreampolitik, where policy is based on an irrational wish of what might be. Miss Rice seems particularly afflicted, lately given to raving that Palestinians have 'long been known for their tolerance.' Tolerance of what -- Hamas?"

MODERATE MUSLIMS

Melanie Phillips describes the "good cop, bad cop" routine of cartoon-protesting British Moslems.

"Today's newspapers dumbly fell for the spin and dutifully reported that these [new demonstrations] would be organized by 'moderate' Muslims, as opposed to the mob that demanded murder and bombings last weekend. These 'moderates' are the 'moderate' Muslim Council of Britain, who moderately boycott Holocaust Day, moderately back the Jew-hating, gay-hating, human-bombs-in-Israel-and-Iraq supporting Qaradawi and moderately want to criminalise anyone who even talks about Islamic terrorism; and the Muslim Association of Britain, the British arm of the 'moderate' Muslim Brotherhood whose offshoots are busy terrorising Iraq and Israel and are a principal ideological core of the jihad against the west. This show of force on Britain's streets will put muscle behind the 'moderate' demand by 300 'moderate' Islamic religious leaders...[in their] attempt to bludgeon Britain into censoring speech about Islam."