Neviim Tovim, blogs by Gillian Gould Lazarus

Talking to family and friends about this ongoing war in Israel and Gaza, I haven’t heard anyone express anything other than sympathy for the Gazans in their dire situation; neither have I heard anything other than contempt for Hamas apologism, especially when it comes from our own people, in the arts or in journalism, or in the Jewish anti Israel movements such as N’amod, Jewdas and JVL.

It’s been said that where other people are connected by six degrees of separation, Jews are connected to each other by fewer degrees, because we are few in number, so we all know someone affected by the Hamas massacre of 7 October and many of us know someone involved in anti Israel activism, marching today, as last Saturday, with the thousands chanting ‘From the river to the sea,’ and ‘Khaybar ya Yahud’. They will make an argument that ‘from the river to the sea’ is not a genocidal slogan. Not many Jewish people, however sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, will echo Chris Williamson’s words, ‘Israel has forfeited the right to exist,’ although one or two will do even that.

My thousands of tweets on the subject of antisemitism have caused hostile persons to identify me as a fanatical Zionist, ‘a Ben Gvir supporter’ is how a regular adversary described me. Although I have no time for the racist Ben Gvir and the highly compromised Prime Minister Netanyahu, my Zionism is more fanatical than it ever was. Bear in mind that I live in the diaspora, ‘Galut Anglia’ somebody called it, and never considered making aliyah until antisemitism took hold of my preferred political party, Labour. By then it was too late. I was already old and the generations of my family will not tear up their deep and tangled roots in this country.

As Jonathan Freedland pointed out in today’s Guardian, and as President Biden adumbrated in a televised conversation with Netanyahu, rage at the atrocities carried out by Hamas can cloud our judgment, as rage at 9/11 clouded the judgment of the Bush administration.

As I type this, a Jewish caller on Radio4’s ‘Any Answers’ is stating that he’s horrified by the actions of Hamas but condemns Israel which he thinks is going too far. He throws in his complaints about the occupation because, if you’re identifying as Jewish on public broadcasting, you don’t want to appear to support the settlements in the disputed territories. It may be easier for non Jewish people to condemn Hamas without adding the qualifying ‘but’.

When Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, there was fury from the eight thousand evicted Israelis living in the Gaza strip and those who supported them, while progressives like myself thought Israel would win international approval and goodwill from the Palestinians taking over in Gaza. Public perception seems to regard Israel as still occupying Gaza, despite the trauma of Ariel Sharon’s policy of withdrawal. Demographically, the continued Israeli settlement of Gaza would have been as much a tinder box as the disengagement which led to the advent of Hamas, ruling Gaza since the last election there in 2006, seventeen years ago.

The callers on Radio 4 Any Answers want Israel to cease bombardment of Gaza. My Jewish friends also want this de-escalation and I want it too but meanwhile all but two hostages remain in captivity in Gaza and while they are in the forefront of minds in Israel, that is not the case on broadcast news in the UK.

I asked some of my friends ‘What did you think Israel should do after the massacre? Should they just sit on their hands and do nothing?’ Of course they said no. Nobody except the most extreme anti Zionists suggested that Israel should do nothing. Mr Corbyn thought a withdrawal from the disputed territories was the answer. Is he confident that Israelis would be safe within their own borders, not vulnerable to incursions from those who want Israel destroyed, from Syria and Lebanon in the north as well as Gaza in the south and the West Bank to the east? Does he mind if Israelis are not safe, which is the preference of his cohort Chris Williamson?

Another caller on Any Answers asserted ‘The Jews are not squeaky clean with regard to terrorism,’ and spoke of the Stern Gang, resorting to violent means to end the British presence in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine.

‘The Jews are not squeaky clean’ is a gateway drug. No nation is squeaky clean but when someone phones in to British Broadcasting to say ‘The Jews are not squeaky clean’, my heart cleaves to the one country where we are not the outsider.

עם ישראל חי