• The future of Iraq : Anti-Israeli sentiment in Great Britain The future of Iraq : Anti-Israeli sentiment in Great Britain Jerusalem Post, Israel Something unsavory is happening in Great Britain. Oona King, Labor MP for Bethnal Green, was pelted
• The future of Iraq : Anti-Israeli sentiment in Great Britain
The future of Iraq : Anti-Israeli sentiment in Great Britain
Jerusalem Post, Israel
Something unsavory is happening in Great Britain. Oona King, Labor MP for Bethnal Green, was pelted with onions and eggs by Muslim constituents Sunday when she participated in a memorial to Jewish victims of WWII’s last German V2 missile attack on London. London’s Mayor Ken Livingstone likened a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard, and on April 20 British university professors may decide to boycott Israeli academics.
All the above are inextricably linked. All are products of unprecedented antagonism toward Jews and all things Israeli. The pretext is Israeli policy but that cannot, for instance, account for the atmosphere of hate toward Jewish students on British campuses. …
Indeed if British academics wished to experience real academic freedom they would be well advised to spend some time at the very campuses with which they wish to sever all ties. These are far from ideologically homogeneous institutions. …
A boycott by its nature is the antithesis of freethinking. Moreover, this is not an unfortunate isolated misunderstanding. …
… (A)ll Israeli universities, those singled out and those spared for now, should announce unconditional solidarity with any boycotted Israeli institution or individual. Indeed it wouldn’t be asking too much in the name of true intellectual liberty for our schools to cut off ties with any ostracizing counterparts. …
Ultimately, however, such intolerance among Britain’s university teachers for the most open and pluralistic universities in the region’s only democracy is pitiable, and will prove an embarrassment like the UN’s since-repealed “Zionism is racism” resolution to the institutions that sully themselves by engaging in it.
Daily Telegraph, London
The bombings, the shootings and kidnappings go on daily in Iraq. But two years after U.S. troops pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, there are signs of hope that Iraq is finally turning the corner.…
Iraqi security forces appear to be more capable and confident, and their numbers keep growing. American soldiers are less visible on the streets, and Iraqi forces more so. …
More important than these military successes is the psychological transformation in Iraq after last January’s elections. Millions of Iraqis turned out to cast their ballots in defiance of insurgents. In doing so, they also helped neutralize the issue of Iraq for Tony Blair in his own election campaign.…
The U.S.-led coalition still has a vital role in protecting the new government, strengthening its security organs, and fending off interference by Iraq’s neighbors.
Above all, the allies will have to know when to withdraw. If they leave too quickly, they will embolden the insurgents; if they stay too long, they will erode the legitimacy of elected Iraqi leaders who will be seen as American stooges.…
