Tony Blair’s speech at Herzliya:
I often have a conversation about the West Bank which goes like this. Someone says: Israel must lift the occupation. I reply: I agree but it has to be sure that when it does so, there will be security and a Palestinian force capable of preventing terrorism. They say: so you’re supporting occupation. I say: I’m not: I’m simply pointing out that if Hamas, with an unchanged position on Israel, were running the West Bank, Israel would have a perfectly legitimate right to be concerned about it’s security.
A constant conversation I have with some, by no means all, of my European colleagues is to argue to them: don’t apply rules to the Government of Israel that you would never dream of applying to your own country. In any of our nations, if there were people firing rockets, committing acts of terrorism and living next door to us, our public opinion would go crazy. And any political leader who took the line that we shouldn’t get too excited about it, wouldn’t last long as a political leader. This is a democracy. Israel lost 1000 citizens to terrorism in the intifada. That equates in UK population terms to 10,000. I remember the bomb attacks from Republican terrorism in the 1970’s. There weren’t many arguing for a policy of phlegmatic calm.
So the issue of de-legitimisation is not simply about an overt denial of the State of Israel. It is the application of prejudice in not allowing that Israel has a point of view that should be listened to.
That Totten interview of Spyer is truly outstanding.
Agreed! But I found Blair’s speech a little grating. Why oh WHY is it so impossible for Europeans and other liberals to praise Israel without tacking on a condescending little lecture about how “you have to really make some serious efforts for peace, being will to put everything on the table, and start alleviating the poor Palestinians suffering.” Do they EVER give the same sort of lectures to anyone else? The Arab countries, the Palestinians, the terror leaders? Ever??
Grating or not, Blair’s speech is something of a milestone. The delegitimization he speaks of is something that has concerned me for some time. It lies not just in such defamation as irrationally claiming that the IDF was taking Palestinian bodies to harvest organs, when it is common knowledge that dead organs aren’t viable, but also more subtly, in the fact that none of the thousands of Israeli contributions, especially in health and technology are ever reported. I couldn’t even find Blair’s speech in any msm outlets beyond Jewish or Arab ones, when his message was clearly for Europe and the west. Israel’s amazing rescue efforts in Haiti didn’t get much coverage outside Israel and the US. The clear pattern is stifle the good, highlight and misrepresent the rest. Good on Blair for casting some light on the issue.