Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster comments on the despicable terror attacks perpetrated by Hamas on Israel.
On Tuesday November 6, 2007, in my home at the top of Mt Carmel, Haifa, Israel, I reviewed an article on Telos Journal about Jew hatred by a little-known German author, Matthias Küntzel.
Why on earth should I be doing such a thing? I had heard from English journalists and others that Leeds University had just rescinded their invitation to this German writer when he arrived on the premises to give his invited talk. The subject? The direct and indisputable relationship between Hamas and Hitler.
Leeds University, at that time (but certainly not now) one of the only three universities that were not complete hell-holes for Jewish students in the UK, had invited the German author and knew the subject matter beforehand, before suddenly cancelling their invitation. When I contacted them from the top of Mount Carmel, they prevaricated: first, it was supposedly two Muslim students who had made vague objections on no grounds whatsoever. Then it was that there was apparently a security risk. So, in fact, nothing at all. Just a panicked reaction to a nothing situation.
As a result of my blog posting and the fact that I posted his entire article on my blog - as apparently no media outlet would - the German author gained recognition and won a prestigious prize. No doubt Telos Journal was overjoyed and we all slept more safely in our beds that night.
And now the editor of the Jewish Chronicle has published his new book on hatred of Israel, making full use of Küntzel's findings, which had been in the public domain for a long time before that in any case. Everyone in the field knew the facts, but for some reason suppressed the truth. 'Community cohesion' and all that, of course.
And now, 16 years later, what is the state of play when the Jewish people have suffered not only their second Shoah, but also their second Kishinev pogrom? As Israel's national poet, Chaim Nachman Bialik, wrote in his masterpiece, 'In the City of Slaughter' (1903), on viewing the aftermath of the Kishinev pogrom which drove the Jews of Russia to the USA, Israel and England (where the English Chief Rabbi at the time tried to prevent their entry):
'Arise and go now to the city of slaughter,
Into its courtyard wind thy way.
There, with thine own hand touch, and with the eyes of thine head,
Behold on tree, on stone, on fence, on mural clay,
The spattered blood and dried brains of the dead.
Proceed thence to the ruins, the split walls reach,
Where wider grows the hollow, and greater grows the breach;
Pass over the shattered hearth, attain the broken wall
Whose burnt and barren brick, whose charred stones reveal,
The open mouths of such wounds, that no mending
Shall ever mend, nor healing ever heal .....'
Yes, our greatest modern poet, writing in Hebrew, got it in one. Bialik anticipated the Simchat Torah War by exactly 120 years.
For doesn't it state in Kohelet (Ecclesiastes in English), which we read last Saturday in its entirety on Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah in Israel, as babies were being decapitated and burnt alive by an animal enemy:
'Everything has an appointed season and there is a time for every matter under the heaven.
A time to give birth and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot that which is planted
A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break and a time to build.
A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time of wailing and a time of dancing.
A time to cast stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.
A time to seek and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to cast away.
A time to rend and a time to sew. A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.'
But this is mere therapy, a very English pursuit, where everything is down to your mood and if only you reshaped your perspective, things would get better. Sadly, that is the Oxford and Cambridge way of looking at things. It is the condescending BBC-speak and the condoning and encouragement of the destruction of the world as we know it.
As someone with an extensive network of friends, family - including both my daughters and grandchildren - and associates in Israel, I am well aware of what is going on and it must be said that there are some aid agencies, church charities, and broadcasters that are spreading disinformation.
I can't speak for Israel as I'm not there at present and I can't speak for the Jewish people, because no-one would dare at such a moment, but what I can do is speak truth to power and tell this readership that if you are praying in any way that is supportive of Hamas or what it is doing, it is the same as praying for Hitler, ISIS or for the Tohu and Bohu of the first lines of Genesis that we read this week, for the formlessness and void that we are currently experiencing.
And no, as Rabbi Angel of New York has put it so succinctly, we may all be made in the image of G-d, but that is in potential only. This does not mean that every single person develops their potential, and Hamas is definitely not in the image of G-d. Their actions are a crime against humanity and of Amalek, forces of evil who have to be wiped out altogether. Not doing so would be cowardly and, I believe, a sin against G-d.
Furthermore, some Christians reading this article must come to terms with the fact that their theology is sadly lacking in this area and damaging to the G-d whom they worship because the so-called even-handed approach (just like the Pope in the Shoah) is actually going against G-d's law and the law of the universe at this moment in time, and is actually destroying the Jewish people as we speak.
Despite Biden's speech - the best and most sincere I have heard in person since Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' - yes, despite what can only be called the leader of the free world's true Churchillian moment and a great leap forward, rest assured that there is still the Iran option. Hamas is simply, like Hezbollah, a proxy of Iran, and that country must surely have provided the intelligence that led to Hamas in Gaza, on the most joyful day of the Jewish year, decapitating Jewish babies and burning them alive. Iran is in receipt of billions of dollars to do with as it will, and the UK and Europe are part of the problem.
It must also be recognised that certain media organisations, together with parts of the Church, universities, the Left, unions and chattering classes are in general, by their actions, destroying the entire world. There is no choice, no option. Evil does exist; it is in the world, sin does crouch by the door, as it says in Genesis chapter 4. It desires to have us, but we must rule over it.
I am among those who feel that the BBC is no longer fit for purpose and should be shut down or else replaced with something else. And I would caution against donations to projects based in Gaza unless you can be certain that the money is not going to end up propping up Hamas, be it directly or indirectly, and therefore inadvertently Iran.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams sent me these thoughts following Hamas' attack:
'There should be no ambiguity about describing Hamas's incursion into Israel as a calculated act of terror, long-planned and tied in with Iran's regional ambitions. The taking of hostages, along with the random slaughter of Israeli civilians, is a barbarity. It is one thing to long passionately for a durable and just settlement for Palestinians, quite another to pretend that Hamas's action is anything but a cynically calculated outrage that will bring more suffering to those who most need hope. Attacking and undermining Israel with this kind of savagery is a disastrous strategy for the region – as well as for Jews throughout the world. A future determined by Hamas and its allies would be a nightmare for all.'
The former Archbishop and so many other Anglican clergy and dialogue group members have told me that they dedicated their church services at the weekend to the people of Israel. And I received this warming message:
'Dear Irene
'I am shocked and saddened and horrified, by turns, by what is now happening in Israel - and I know that our colleagues and fellow-campaigners are as well.
'I wanted to write to say how much we are all thinking of you. We are worrying in particular because of your family members who are there, as well as, of course, your many friends and acquaintances and other loved ones who have found themselves on a 'front line' through no fault of their own.
'We also know just how intensely you must feel the attacks on the land and nation of Israel and how powerless we all feel to influence what is a pointless, meaningless and unbearable situation.
'Our best wishes and deepest commiseration.'
It meant a lot as it was sent on behalf of a group of people with whom I'm working at present on a project close to all our hearts. I have never met them and they are all top in their fields, without probably having ever visited Israel.
To finish, funds to Israel would be much appreciated, because the normal aid agencies here and other organisations sadly discriminate openly and brazenly against the Jewish community on the ground. My daughter and son-in-law in the north were doing what they could to help, opening the synagogue to refugees and running around providing food, drink and packages for soldiers stationed there, despite having temporarily to go into a bunker for their own safety. Rabbis have opened their arms to all Israel, irrespective of who they are, observant or not, have visited the front lines, and of course those in hospitals, as well as grieving families.
Incidentally, as I finish this, a message has arrived informing us that security has had to be increased around our synagogue here in Greater Manchester due to the present risk to Jews. At what price interfaith dialogue now?
