Good Jews v Bad Jews
Last night (23 November) in London two Jewish Israelis gave talks. The first was Dr Dan Schueftan. He was speaking at Kings College London. The second was Idit Lev. She was speaking at St James’s Church, Piccadilly.
Both are Jewish Israelis. But there the similarity ends. One is the Director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, and a Senior Lecturer at the School of Political Sciences there as well as at the Israel Defence Force’s National Defence College. In other words, a thoroughly “Bad Jew” in the eyes of the Israel haters.
The second is a member of Rabbis For Human Rights. She is a “Good Jew”. She badmouths Israel. She says that racism is to blame for Israel’s high poverty rate (it isn’t); that no money has yet been spent on the programme to advance the standard of living of Arab Israelis (it has); and that there are no bus services to Arab villages in Galilee (there are). And her UK minder (Sylvia Rothschild, a former Liberal Rabbi in London) has the gall to claim that Rabbis for Human Rights is “non-political”!
St James’s of course is the church that previously thought it a trendy idea to host carols with the words doctored to vilify Israel (2008) and erect (at a cost of £30,000!) a replica of the security fence (2014). The vicar is the right-on trendy lefty Lucy Winkett, a parody of all that is wrong with the Church of England. Rev Winkett is blind to Palestinian violence against Israel; parrots the lie that the security barrier has been declared illegal under international law; fails to recognise that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the Christian population is increasing; and fails to recognise Islamist persecution of Christians.
Rev Winkett is also distinctly unbothered by her allies. One of her ‘partner organisations’ for ‘Bethlehem Unwrapped’ was ‘Interpal’, an organisation which in the US is designated as a terrorist entity.
After the meeting I suggested to Rev Winkett that she might want to redress the balance by hosting a speaker from Save a Child’s Heart or from the Zionist Federation.
Of course she would not commit. I have followed up with an email. I challenge her to commit, by commenting below this article. But I suggest that the chance of her doing so is significantly less than of my being appointed the next Archbishop of Canterbury….
If you wanted to hear the ‘Good Jew’ speak last night, you could just walk in. No pre-registration, no security. But if you wanted to hear the ‘Bad Jew’, you had to preregister and even then there was some doubt whether non-students would be admitted. On arrival you had to see barricades being erected in the Strand and a phalanx of police. You had your name checked twice and on your way to the room (three floors below ground level) you passed many security guards and CST volunteers.
It was great that Dr Schueftan was able to speak unmolested and that Jewish students were able to attend without being vilified and abused.
But how can anyone be content that Fort-Knox style security is needed for a ‘Bad Jew’ to speak in a London University? And that a Church is so quick to embrace a ‘Good Jew’ – for whom no security whatever is needed?
