HOWARD EPSTEIN: FAILING TO LEARN FROM HISTORY
What we learn from history is that we just don’t learn the lessons of history. There are countless examples, but here are two that should have prevented the 7 October Massacre.
The Russian dictator, Stalin, believed that Hitler’s Nazi Germany would not attack the Soviet Union because they had signed five trade agreements between 1922 and 1940. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (signed one week before Hitler attacked Poland) is the best known because after the end of WWII it became the most notorious by reason of its secret clauses for the mutual dismemberment of Poland. The launch of Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa, the greatest land invasion of all time, on 22 June 1941 showed Stalin the folly of his assumption.
In a reverse repetition of that history, the “greatest politician of our time”, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, learned the hard way that doing great business with the Russian Federation was not guaranteed, as she believed, to deter Putin from aggression against the West – not when he sent his forces into Crimea in 2014 and not when they invaded Ukraine proper in 2022.
This brings us to Israeli prime minister, “Bibi” Netanyahu. His policy for almost twenty years was to make nice with Hamas by allowing vast amounts of money, and building and other materials, into Gaza. His strategy was to preserve Hamas as a counterweight to the Palestine Authority on the West Bank, in order to postpone the establishment of a Palestinian state. That way, Bibi believed, apart from the occasional mini-war – “mowing the lawn” – Hamas would play along with Israel: why would they go to war when they were onto a good thing? Given the fact that they are vicious killers, who took power by murdering fellow Palestinians, and whose covenant is to kill Jews everywhere, they could be trusted on one matter only – to ignore Bibi’s cornucopia of kindness and set about murdering Jews on a massive scale when it suited them.
Bibi had Barbarossa and the Russian invasions of Ukraine to inform him of the folly of sweetening life for Hamas, in the hope that they would not attack Israelis. He ignored them.
Netanyahu’s continuation in office, notwithstanding the complete failure of his policy, and that of his five or six security entities, on 7 October 2023 is tolerated. Why? Simply because he is a willing prisoner of his extreme right-wing colleagues, who can be trusted not to try to weaken the nation’s resolve: to achieve maximum deterrence against future Hamas attacks, despite the best efforts of the mobs on the streets in the West, to whom I now turn.
The British street mobs, with their blood-curdling cries for the deaths of all “Zios” – they mean you and me – are a threat not merely to us but also to British democracy.
It was reported in The Times last weekend that the leader of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign sought to occupy the Palace of Westminster – in an echo of the 6 January 2021 invasion of the US Congress – projected “From the River to the Sea” onto the façade of the Elizabeth Tower (that houses Big Ben), closed Tower Bridge for an hour and urged pro-Palestinian protesters to ramp up pressure on UK Members of Parliament.
That was already well underway. Such is the fear that now stalks the corridors of elected power in London that many MPs are saying that they “did not sign up for this” and will not stand for re-election. Further, it has been reported that at least three female MPs have taxpayer-funded bodyguards out of fear for their safety. (It has not been forgotten that Conservative MP, David Amess, was killed in 2021 and Labour’s Jo Cox in 2016).
What has been forgotten – conveniently – is the removal from the office of Home Secretary of Suella Braverman MP for the offence of describing pro-Palestine marches as “hate marches”.
The Labour Party and some police officers said that Braverman’s words had led to far-right supporters attacking police. Braverman responded with an article in The Times, saying “senior police officers play favourites when it comes to protesters” and were tougher on right-wing extremists than pro-Palestinian mobs. She was soon removed as Home Secretary.
Since then, possibly empowered by her dismissal, the mobs have gone from support for Palestine to the Full-Hamas: all Jews are now fair game.
Last Friday, Braverman, unrepentant, wrote in The Telegraph that the UK is “sleep-walking into ghettoised society” that threatens free expression. This came after (briefly, because it is too convoluted to explain here) Starmer, Leader of His Majesty’s Opposition, leaned on the Speaker of the House of Commons to break with precedent so Starmer’s Labour Party were not able to vote (as The Times reported) against calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, possibly for their own safety. This provoked Braverman to write that the “Islamists are in charge of Britain now”.
Well, even if the Islamists are not yet in complete control they merely need to wait a few months for, when the Starmer becomes prime minister, the Labour government will not be as supportive to British Jews, and to Israel as the soon-to-expire Conservative one. The Labour Party membership is hostile to us and our interests, as are their natural allies, educators in schools and universities, the trade unions and many in the media.
After a probably unavoidable hard war in the north against Hezbollah, Israel’s war will eventually cease and Aliyah will likely rise significantly. According to the Israeli Ministry of Aliyah, “in the wake of the war against Hamas, fuelled by solidarity with the Jewish state as well as global antisemitism”, a large wave of immigration is expected.
Before 1948, Jews were often told to “go back to Palestine”. Now we are being told to leave the same land. But we won’t. Israel is our only and last refuge. It is strong, and it knows that the only part of the Moslem world that does not want to align with Israel is the 7% (yes, seven percent) who are the Shia Iranians and the Iran-funded Palestinians.
The Palestinians may yet realise that they are not on the right side of history.
© March 2024 – Howard Epstein – www.howard-epstein.com
