Media's Double Standards Over Israel Reach BOILING POINT!

Right, so one of the biggest mainstays in our observations of Israel, not just over the last year, but particularly so given so much global attention and horror has been focused on what they have been doing in Gaza and latterly the surrounding areas, has been Israel’s fondness for painting itself as the victim each and very time their actions get criticised and this has been most harmful and most pernicious when they hide behind Judaism to do so. They hide behind faith, they hide behind a world religion and any attacks, criticisms or condemnations that get thrown their way has always come with accusations thrown back of antisemitism, of Jew hate, of blood libels and so on and so forth. Not only has this been particularly harmful to Jews around the world as a whole, people rightly disgusted by Israel, are taking that out on local Jewry, despite the truth of the matter being that Israel is not a Jewish state, it is a Zionist state, and it’s weaponisation of Judaism as a shield to protect itself from all denunciations is false equivalence and I would consider a racist act in and of itself. Yet as much as more and more people are waking up to that fact, needing to because of the damage Israel is doing whilst wrapping in a cotton wool blanket of its own antisemitic making, too many in positions of power and privilege continue to protect Israel from censure, be they in the media or politics as in the last 24 hours or so we’ve seen examples of just how ridiculous some of these sources sound, as well as the consequences – affecting other religions – of Israel being given a free pass based on their supposed faith time after time.
Right, so I’m not somebody who is into the peddling of religion per se, I don’t wear my own faith on my sleeve or anything like that, but I’m a Christian, I’m Church of England and even if I’m not the churchgoing type, even though many members of my family very much are. I don’t think you even need to have a faith however to appreciate that others do and appreciate the damage clearly being done when one religion is seemingly placed on a pedestal above all others – falsely I might add by those doing it - yet when that religion shares it’s roots with at least two other world religions, it becomes even more ridiculous to see the line peddled that a nation state should be regarded in the same light as a world religion, because it makes absolutely no sense to do so.
The main religion here in the UK is my faith, Christianity, it is far from the only one though and we’ve been welcoming and accepting of many faiths building the multicultural society we live in, but we don’t go around pretending that Christianity is more important than other faiths, I daresay there may be some prats that might, but not many and certainly not compared to the levels that Judaism is held in in Israel, to the point the state identifies itself by it’s religion, calls itself the Jewish State, even as it shares that Holy Land with the origins both of Christianity and Islam. Both of those religions are still prominent there too, with Mosques and Churches in existence both in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and we’ve seen how those sites of those other faiths are regarded by Israel too. How many mosques have been bombed? How many churches? One of the oldest churches in the world St Porphyrius, was one of the first civilian sites attacked following Israel’s invasion of northern Gaza, yet Western Christian countries paid it little mind, it was one of the first Gaza stories I covered on this channel, so appalled at the prospect of a church being struck as we were and now a year on, it’s far from the worst we’ve seen, yet Israel can claim to hide behind it’s religion despite carrying out such acts and the condemnation is always few and far between. Now sure I can point to Pope Francis the head of the Catholic Church and say he’s called out Israeli atrocity, because he has, but then you look at the Archbishop of Canterbury here, Justin Welby and he’s too busy hanging out with Jewish apologists for Israel like the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and getting his photo taken with Benjamin Netanyahu. I’m frankly embarrassed by him as the head of my church, but then he is also the son of a Tory MP, so there’s that I suppose.
Overnight, in East Jerusalem, so Palestinian Territory, during a visit by the French Foreign Minister to Israel, Jean-Noel Barrot, Israeli police triggered a major diplomatic incident by entering the compound of Eleona, where the Church of Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives is situated. This is a French owned church, has been for more than 150 years, is maintained by France and secured by France, hence the presence of French Gendarmes on site, providing said security.
Israel has now business going there, should it wish to do so it has to request that, so the fact that Israeli police entered the church yesterday, armed police at that, to arrest two of the gendarmes present in complete violation of the security protocols put in place. Once again an abuse of another faiths religious site, that of another country, resulting in the Israeli ambassador to France being called to explain the situation and why it had happened, all to coincide with a planned visit by Barrot, to the site. Barrot himself cancelled said visit in light of what had happened, saying:
‘I will not enter the Eleona Domain today, because Israeli security forces entered with weapons, without prior French authorisation, without agreeing to leave.’
The footage of the arrest itself can be found on social media sites, one person who shared it being French political commentator Arnaud Bertrand, who also tweeted out:
‘This is crazy: Israeli police arrests 2 French military personnel ("gendarmes") with diplomatic status in a Christian church (the Eleona Church) that has officially belonged to France for 160 years and is protected by diplomatic immunity.
To make things worse the church is located in occupied East Jerusalem - theoretically Palestinian territory - and the arrests occurred as the French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit it. He cancelled his visit due to the presence of Israeli police on site and the breach of diplomatic immunity. Yet another unarguable proof that Israel respects absolutely zero rule.’
Why did Israel do this? Allegedly because France hurt their feelings by deciding not to ship them any weapons anymore, slapping an arms embargo on the genocidal maniacs and like the children they are, they spat the dummy and said I’m going to break something of yours in return. Diplomatic incident caused to a nation that has ostensibly been completely supportive of Israel until recently.
But it’s not just Israel self identifying as the Jewish state and relegating all other religions based on their treatment of churches and the like to some kind of second tier to be looked down on, it’s wearing that false equivalence of Judaism as armour to protect itself with, but worse are those doing it for them.
I now point you to a certain football match between Dutch club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, taking place in Amsterdam last night. We talk of British hooliganism in the media, but Maccabi were off the charts in their callousness, and abusiveness. Ahead of the match there was a minute silence for the victims of the Spanish floods in Valencia and throughout it, the Israel fans jeered and booed. But outside the grounds things were so much worse as Al-Jazeera covered:
‘Hundreds of supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv came to Amsterdam, held a very vocal rally in the main square before the incident, waving Israeli flags, and also took down a Palestinian flag,” she said.
On Thursday, police had said on social media that they were being particularly vigilant in the wake of politically charged incidents, including the tearing down of a Palestinian flag from a building.
The Israeli fans instigated the violence after arriving in the city and attacking Palestinian supporters before the match, an Amsterdam city council member said.
“They began attacking houses of people in Amsterdam with Palestinian flags, so that’s actually where the violence started,” councilman Jazie Veldhuyzen told Al Jazeera on Friday.
“As a reaction, Amsterdammers mobilised themselves and countered the attacks that started on Wednesday by the Maccabi hooligans.”’
The thing is, I’ve had to use Al Jazeera, because of how appallingly and sycophantically, not to mention just plan wrong, Western media have been.
The BBC spun the story as one of attacks on Israelis with the Dutch PM calling the attacks antisemitic.
Simon Walters the British Ambassador to The Neterlands tweeted out:
‘I’m horrified by the appalling attacks on Israeli football fans in Amsterdam. Antisemitism cannot ever be justified by context. Hate crimes must be addressed robustly by the authorities. We hope for the swift & safe return of all the fans, and wish the injured full recovery.’
The Guardian did a story saying Israel were sending rescue planes to save their people.
The Free Press Editor Bari Weiss claimed on twitter that a pogrom was unfolding on the streets of Amsterdam.
Let’s come back to our Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, he’d also taken to twitter saying:
‘Utterly devastating scenes from The Netherlands. Hateful mobs have chased down Jewish & Israeli football fans on the streets of Amsterdam after a match, violently beating them and proudly posting the footage on social media. Many are injured and three people are currently missing. This should be a watershed moment for Europe and for the world, when it realises how severe the scourge of anti-Jewish hatred has become. Sadly, I fear it will not be and that tragically, this will not be the last such attack, God forbid.’
What should actually happen here is that Israel get a blanket ban from by UEFA, because their fans are deranged and out of control, but you can criticise them because apparently its antisemitism again! It is not and I’ll quote a tweet from the Jewish Jewdas Organisation’s twitter account on this, who summed up the reality of what was witnessed saying:
‘Maccabi Tel Aviv fans:
- chanted "kill the arabs"
- chanted "there are no schools in Gaza, because all the children are dead"
- ripped down Palestinian flags
- disrupted the minute silence for the Valencia flood victims - with fireworks
That's what you are defending.’
Excuses made because of religion, which are false. Give a free pass when attacking other religions because attacking them would be an attack on their religion too. Make it stop. The fear of being called antisemitic cannot stop people from calling out the truth, when it is done so falsely. Israel is not a Jewish state any more than any other nation on Earth is defined by it’s main religion, but when it is abused to provide cover for atrocity and prejudice against other faiths and other peoples it is even worse than that. It has to stop and it needs to be called out and condemned where ever we see it if we’re ever to tear down this false protection Israel has erected around itself so it can do what it likes with impunity.
For as much as the state of Israel is one thing, much of what we’re seeing happen in the Middle East and emboldening far right racists such as the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but actually he’s not had such a good week, as a police investigation that has been rumbling along for some 6 months has now become public knowledge and he’s in a whole world of bother. Get the details of that story in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.