HOWARD EPSTEIN: THE WORLD – PLANET EARTH OR PLANET OF THE APES?
Of all the issues that have arisen recently that affect Jews and Israelis, only one commands overriding attention, although there have been several contenders, as follows:-
We have been spooked by the UK. Traditionally respected, and reliable, as a bastion of all things democratic, we have seen recently how there have been lurking, close to the surface of British politics, many closet anti-Semites. Appearing in daylight as anti-Zionists, they are profoundly ensconced within the Labour party, the official opposition in the Mother of Parliaments. Knowing as we do that UK institutions, from the trade union movement to the universities, and from the students’ official body to the local authorities (who have recently been forbidden by statute from following BDS policies), have been and are firmly anti-Zionist, some for decades, we have also seen in the recent past a former writer for The Guardian, Nick Cohen, born only paternally Jewish, adopt Judaism as his response to the visceral reaction to his book “What’s Left”. This excellent chronicle of the demise of fairness on the Left of British politics, provoked a visceral opprobrium such that he decided that if he was to be reviled as the Jew he was at birth not, he may as well become one. All in all, we have been forced to wonder for how long Britain can be relied upon to speak the truth on matters that affect us.
We are even now disturbed by the USA. We have seen see how an oafish, possible maniacal, non-politician, Donald Trump, has bull-dozed his way to become (presently at any rate) the pre-eminent Republican presidential candidate – the collapse of the conventional political process in real time before our eyes. One result may be that Hillary Clinton is not so much the democratic contender for the White House as President in waiting. This will be of concern only to those who do not regard this over-weaningly personally‑ambitious former FLOTUS, desperate to be the first in history to be POTUS also, as untainted by more scandals and controversies than you could shake a stick at. When, in 1992, Gennifer Flowers made adultery allegations made against presidential candidate husband, Bill, at the very outset of his White House run, Hillary’s response was she would stand by her man come what may; as indeed she did. That preceded the Whitewatergate, Travelgate, and Filegate scandals, all investigated by Special Investigator Starr, with Hillary as a co-suspect with Bill. Then came Monicagate, in which she steadfastly – again – stood by her man all the way to his acquittal in the impeachment proceedings that followed the revelation that his DNA was beyond peradventure lodged in the little blue dress of an intern half his age. Then there are the controversies that Hillary herself generated whilst she was Obama’s Secretary of State (no second-fiddling to Bill there), notably what occurred in Benghazi, leading to the cruel slaying of US diplomats, and why she was running her official emails “off-piste”, a matter still being investigated by the FBI. If any of this does not seem less than respectable to you, do not trouble to deny that short of her being found in flagrante delicto, with a smoking gun welded by the heat of her crime to her hand, there is nothing whatsoever that would dissuade you from voting for her. (Was there ever a more corrupt political family in the history of the United States?) What further murky territories her left-wing presidency (those so far unexplored by the incumbent Obama – he and Hillary Clinton both having been disciples of Chicago Trotskyite, Saul Alinsky, best known for his “Twelve Rules for Radicals” that repeatedly refers to “enemies”), one can only imagine and fear. Her election will likely mean that they (she and Obama) will have sixteen years in which to reshape America in Alinsky’s image. This will certainly leave Rooseveltian liberalism in the grave, its greatest triumph, the Glass-Steagall Act, having been abolished by Bill Clinton, leading directly to the fiscal disasters of 2007 onwards. We shall have the rest of our lives to reflect upon the ramifications.
We are fearful about Europe, for its sake no less than ours. Fiddling, while more than one capital than Rome burns (in the case of Athens literally, from time to time), in indulging in today’s version of the application of the Yellow Star, in the labelling of certain Israeli goods, so great is Europe’s formal (pace Bat Yeor) and emotional connexion to the Arab cause, its economy teeters under the twin pressures of economic mismanagement and uncontrolled immigration from Syria and Africa. We see pressure building on many political fronts to delegitimize Israel, the only fully-functioning democracy between Greece and Japan. (One has to ignore Turkey for present and prospective reasons connected with the abandonment of a free press, and the movement to a presidential system that will see a follower of the Moslem brotherhood, Erdoğan, in charge of a formidable military, and India because of its civil courts system which takes generations to dispose of disputes – not to mention its endemic rape problems.)
No, all these matters are dwarfed by the madness that has emanated in the last few days from the United Nations and in particular its UNESCO branch. Trumpeting its mission as to:-
… contribute to the building of peace, poverty eradication, lasting development and intercultural dialogue, with education as one of its principal activities to achieve this aim. The Organization is committed to a holistic and humanistic vision of quality education worldwide, the realization of everyone’s right to education and the belief that education plays a fundamental role in human, social and economic development by its Resolution 19 alone, UNESCO has negated each and every aspect.
The day following Holocaust Memorial day, the sanctimonious UNESCO passed a resolution to the effect that Jews and Israelis are usurpers on Temple Mount. By a large majority, UNESCO has sought to unravel a 3,000 year continuous history of Jewish attachment to the great mound raised by King Herod over two thousand years ago, upon which Islam, a religion that emanated from Mecca just about 1,500 years ago, has exclusive pretensions. That the Romans destroyed the Second Jewish temple there in 70 CE is not doubted by any serious historian. That the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock were built there seven hundred years later is also not in doubt – not outside the UN at any rate.
The denial by UNESCO of the Jewishness of the site is equivalent to the book-burnings of Krystallnacht in 1938 and throughout the Nazi period. Indeed, Winston Smith, the rewriter of history for the fascist regime of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 would understand the perversity of UNESCO’s move: The denial of the fundamental Jewishness of Temple Mount.
Could there be any clearer evidence that the lunatics have taken over the asylum? The Planet of the Apes provided a much more moral environment than any part of the UN, whose manifold anti-Israel resolutions, from the General Assembly to the UNHRC are not so much the stuff of legend as of ridicule.
Of course, Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the UNESCO nonsense (my term, he was more statesmanlike), but notable in her opposition is “force of nature” Laurie Cardoza-Moore. As the UN Special Envoy for the World Council of Independent Christian Churches and President of Proclaiming Justice to The Nations (representing over 40 million pro-Israel Evangelicals worldwide), she participated in meetings at the UN on Thursday last, Holocaust Remembrance day. She herself noted it was an auspicious time to decry the UN resolutions declaring the Temple Mount (and for good measure, in their madness, Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron too) to be exclusively Muslim sites. She said:
“Denying the Jewish people’s connection to the Temple Mount is tantamount to denying the existence of the Jewish people and is therefore even more grave than Holocaust denial.” …. “By deliberately ignoring the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, UNESCO violates the human rights of Jews everywhere, as well as those of Christianity, whose beliefs and heritage include the spiritual and historical connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem and all of Israel. …. UNESCO is also obligated to promote and educate about religious tolerance.”
and called on all Christians:-
“to contact UNESCO and condemn this attempt to re-write biblical history and replace it with political propaganda.”
So we have at least one staunch spokesperson amongst the gentiles. It is important to recognize our friends. There are a handful amongst the states of the UN. Those who voted against the resolution were Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. It is also important to see who lives in our opponents’ cloud-cuckoo land: Amongst the 33 nations supporting the resolution were France, Spain, Sweden, Russia and Slovenia.
When those who affect to speak for the world seek to rewrite history, it is time to gather one’s strength for battles to come. The delegitimization of Israel is gathering force. The Israeli government needs a clear, robust and well-funded policy to counter such calumny. A verbal Iron Dome is urgently required.
© Howard Epstein – May 2016
