B…B…Butterfly

They say that if a butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazonian rainforest, it can change the weather half a world away. That’s the Chaos Theory. What it means is that everything that happens in this moment is an accumulation of everything that’s come before it. So it is with the world’s attitude to Jews. The flapping of wings by the ‘Prime Minister Butterfly’ and its flock of parasitic followers, has changed the climate towards Jews all around the world and in Britain we’ve just experienced it first hand.

It’s hard to believe but October 7^th is almost a year ago. The dead are not forgotten. Neither is the barbarism. But the world has seen something new and disturbing since then. They have seen the Jewish Prime Minister of the Jewish State forgetting the living. Tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women, children, the young and old, alive then, now slaughtered. And ‘almost inexplicably’, he has also forgotten the Jewish living. Hostages languishing alongside corpses in tunnels below the Gaza Strip. It would be terrible enough if they were dead and buried, but these forgotten Jews are buried alive! And the world has seen our Jewish Prime Minister preventing their return and sending more and more of the country’s youth and young men and women to their deaths in a war with no apparent ongoing purpose and no end.

Isaiah taught us that “….the law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” This is not just a prophetic forecast for when the Messiah will come. It is happening now. The people of the world are changing their attitudes towards Jews because of the example they are witnessing of the changed Jew, the uncaring Jew, the heartless Jew, the new word from Jerusalem. Don’t bother to tell the world about earthquake rescues in far off lands, some even hostile lands. Don’t boast about  revolutionary advances in medicine and how they will alleviate pain and suffering.  Don’t seek recognition for setting up field hospitals for the injured in the Syrian civil war. The B..B.. Butterfly’s flapping of its wings has changed the world’s perception of Israel’s deeds. The good deeds have been turned into just so much dust in the desert. Around the world, Israel is now identified as the bringer of pain and suffering. And the world is not distinguishing between Israel’s leaders, Israel and Jews. We are all one and we are all to be held accountable. This, BB Butterfly, is your legacy.

Subtle changes have already happened, but the pace of change is accelerating. Two days ago the Labour Party in the UK won a resounding victory in the General Election, overturning a massive majority in parliament held by the Conservative Party. Britain’s Members of Parliament are elected by each winning a personal vote in one of 650 geographically defined constituencies. In order to win their personal vote, almost all candidates are affiliated to one or other of the national political parties, in much the same way as the Party List in Israel.

During the campaign both the main parties, Labour and Conservative, restated their support for Israel, but each had to quietly bring some of their more outspoken candidates in line. Several of the smaller parties have much more nuanced approaches to Israel and some are privately and sometimes publicly hostile. Both the main parties and particularly the Labour Party were punished by voters for their support of Israel’s hostility towards the Palestinians. That was anticipated.

But this election is ringing alarm bells for the Jewish community because of two new and unexpected developments. There is now elected a small group of unaffiliated (independent) MPs whose sole purpose is to advocate for ‘Gaza’. They will be able to express themselves fully in Parliament, even advocating support for banned terrorist organizations such as Hamas. In the time of the British ‘troubles’ in Ireland, a well-known Labour MP, against his party’s orders, invited the leader of Sinn Fein into Parliament to address a meeting of sympathetic MPs. This would be the equivalent of inviting Yahya Sinwar to address MPs in a private meeting inside the ‘Mother of Parliaments’. Such a development is not impossible, and there are more than enough sympathetic British MP’s to fill a room.

The second development is that since Thursday, the UK has a vocal, well supported far right-wing party in parliament. Fortunately, because of the unfair electoral system, Reform only has five MPs despite almost 4 million people(14% of the electorate) voting for it. By comparison, Labour won a landslide victory with 412 MPs from just 36% of the vote. Very worrying is that Reform came second in 110 constituencies, winning almost all of them from the Conservatives. In the next election in a maximum of five years’ time, Reform could easily become the official opposition, or even win.

The rise in Parliament of the right wing and of anti-Israel activism leaves the Jewish community exposed. The even more serious situation in France means that just as in the 1930’s, it’s OK not to like Jews. How Israel treats Palestinians and how they ignore the basic human rights of so many of their own people, is reason enough for many British citizens to be understanding when people state that they are anti-Israel. Being anti-Israel is now entrenched right across UK politics. It’s the pro-democratic way to be. Jews are now labeled as anti-democratic. Jews have arrest warrants in their names. Jews are being investigated for genocide. Jews. Jews. Jews. Thanks to you, Netanyahu.

Israel will need to prepare for a new Aliya. The new olim will speak English and French. I hope Israel will have new leadership and space will be found for the new olim inside the green line. With new leadership, even Israel can learn from its mistakes.