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Ruth Ben-Or

Hang for a sheep? Might as well be!

Israel may have won the recent wars against Iran’s proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, but it has to be recognised that it has lost the propaganda war — especially as it has been waged by Hamas.

The war in Gaza has resulted in a resurgence of world antisemitism and anti-Zionism on a scale unknown since the end of the Second World War — and the determination of World Jewry to never let the Holocaust happen again must now be bolstered. It is, the Holocaust survivors’ refrain, all hands on deck.

The conclusion can only be drawn that, whatever the Jews do — both in Israel and in the world at large — whatever they do, they will never appease those whose antisemitic feelings are deep seated: antisemitism will raise its ugly head again and again, however many declarations are made, or charters signed to the contrary, by well-meaning international organisations.

Why, then, should the Jews of the world worry so? why should they rein in their yearning for more security and curtail the dreams of those 19th century Zionists who strained their sinews to demand a Greater Israel?

With Hezbollah and Hamas defeated, Iran has been greatly weakened; and with a sympathetic American President in power, in the person of Trump – though the Israeli defences are, momentarily, somewhat depleted – why not venture forth and conquer the lands stretching from “The River to the River” – the land from the Nile to the Euphrates, stretching from Egypt, over Saudi Arabia, Jordan, including the whole of Iraq, parts of Lebanon and parts of Syria – the land promised by God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, according to the Tanach.

Will a weakened Iran bring an exhausted Russia, or a Turkey that has its own territorial ambitions, on board to fend off such an expansion? Who, then, will fight with Iran against an Israel which knows that it will face condemnation by the world whatever it does?

When considering such a proposition, one must raise two facts to the top of the priorities list: the long history and seemingly-unending future of antisemitism and the longer history of the migration of man.

Antisemitism has a history dating back to at least the crucifixion of Christ — and perhaps as far back as the time of Abraham’s marauding, lawless tribe, the Habirus, whose deeds, in Mesopotamia circa 1800 BCE, were discovered by William F Albright in the 20th century, though this theory of antisemitism, based on William F Albright’s findings, is now contested along with Albright’s observations themselves.

Persecution of the Jews after the crucifixion of Jesus swept Westwards through Roman Europe as the Roman Emperor, Constantine, converted and his subjects followed. It spiked with the Pogroms in Russia, the Spanish Inquisition in Spain and Portugal and then with the Holocaust.

No doubt, it will spike again.

More importantly, perhaps, is the fact that the history of the migration across the world of Homo Sapiens is as old as Homo Sapiens himself. Who settled the area now known as Israel before the Palestinians? Who did the First Nations of the world displace?

Who will prevent these migrations taking place?

Who will prevent Israel from expanding from “The River to the River”?

The old mores — the precepts set out in the UN Charter — no longer apply: they have been superseded by Putin’s actions and Trump’s declared intentions.

About the Author
The author has worked in broadcasting (BBC Radio's Religious Broadcasting Department) report writing for a publisher (Espicom) and writing and editing her own website (Jewish Voices). More recently, the author has studied and written in the field of Theology.