The Resumption of an Ongoing Conflict

[Richard A]

It's surprised me that no one has posted anything on here about Hamas's attack on Israel and Israel's response. Elsewhere, there's been plenty being said. We watch various Western allies call on Israel to show restraint in Gaza, while Israel, which has just buried 1,000+ of its citizens, is, perhaps understandably, asking, what for? But Uncle Joe's arrival in Israel is appearing to give them pause, under the cover of "bad weather". (The Missus's response: "Bad weather? There?")

While the UK Parliament, like the Brandenburg Gate, has been lit up in blue and white, the UK has also seen pro-Palestine demonstrations - including, predictably, at SOAS - in response to Israel's bombing of Gaza. France, I read, has banned all such demonstrations as being pro-Hamas. The UK hasn't gone quite that far yet, but our Home Secretary, who makes former IM-Mai look like a liberal (and indeed thinks she is) has advised the police that waving a Palestinian flag "in certain contexts" constitutes encouraging support for Hamas and is thus a terrorist offence. Chanting "from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free" is similarly to be seen as a racially aggravated public order offence. I haven't heard of anyone being arrested simply for this yet, but universities have come under pressure to discipline academics who write things in support of the Palestinian cause.

What's been happening on this in your various parts of the world? And what is your take on what will happen next in Gaza? Apparently Biden has counselled against a re-occupation of Gaza, which presumably is what is planned after the current "Gaza non sit" phase (to borrow Cato's words).

[Мастер]

Haven't heard anyone discuss it here.

[Arneb]

Over here it's pretty lively, of course. There have been several pro-Hamas demonstrations, several others have been cancelled. Football players posting "solidarity with Palestine" have been "talked to" by their bosses and, in one case, fired.

Still, as several attacks on Jewish citizens, Israeli or German, in the capital have shown, if you are a Jew living in Berlin, you aren't in a secure location. Which really makes swallow hard. Of course, our own right wing, more concerned with being anti-Muslim than with being anti-Jewish at the moment (but they are flexible on that) has tried to capitalise on this crying things would be all flowers and unicorns if only our stupid/evil/cunning/incompetent/lizard/American puppet/tree hugger lefty government hadn't let all those bearded knifemen in.

All in all, sentences beginning "I am against Hamas, but..." seem to be the order of the day in properly woke intellectual circles. One tv-pseudophilosopher, in a podcast and blissfully unaware of, well, anything, tossed around the notion that Orthodox Jews are forbidden by their religion to work, "except in the diamond trade and certain financial transactions". Yes, you read that right.

I myself was struck in the gut by the sheer savagery of the attack, and I am afraid Hamas will get not what they deserve, but what they want from Israel.

ETA - Just read there have been Molotov cocktails on a synagogue in Berlin. To use an expression by a famous German painter in 1933, I can't even eat as much as I want to puke.

[Richard A]

Molotov cocktails on a Berlin synagogue??? Here of course, there is not the same resonance, but antisemitism is alive and well. The police of warned of an uptick in antisemitic attacks and 4 Jewish schools closed because of fears for their own safety. Others took advice that that wasn't necessary and I haven't heard reports of their staying open being something they later regretted. Possibly one difference is that a number of orthodox Jewish communities, principally in north London, have a well-organised security force. They don't have quite the equipment that the police have, but one would be unwise to mess with them.

Our far right are similarly more anti-Muslim than anti-Jewish but as Arneb says about their German counterparts, one suspects they're willing to be flexible. Though I haven't heard the tropes that Arneb refers to expressed here.

[Мастер]

Just read there have been Molotov cocktails on a synagogue in Berlin.

For what it's worth, I used to work near Synagogue Street here.

I never saw any evidence of a synagogue.

[Richard A]

Germany, because of its history, will always be different. Whatever the views of the large Muslim communities, no German government can afford to take any stance which Israel - the world's only Jewish state - sees as objectionable. Nor can any significant German institution - with the exception of AfD. (And possibly Die Wähler, but I haven't been able to find enough information on them to make a call on that.) Britain is different - our rather larger Jewish population covers a spectrum, ranging from conservatives staunchly supportive of Israel to liberals who say that the Israeli government doesn't represent them. And who on occasion the former refer to as "self-hating Jews". I have friends in both camps.

So here, things continue to rumble on. For the last two Saturdays, there have been large pro-Palestinian marches which have generally been peaceful, although t but which Home Secretary Suella Braverman has called hate marches. Her position is simple: you either stand with Israel in its time of need or you don't. The chant, "From the River to the sea, Palestine will be free" she considers to be racially aggravated hate speech as it implies the erasure of the State of Israel; she regards the Palestinian flag in the same way as conservative Jews see it as a terrorist banner that directly threatens them. What has upped the stakes is a planned march in London this afternoon, which led to a showdown between Braverman and the police. Today is also Remembrance Day and so various members of the government find holding the march for peace - which of course mostly focuses on the Israeli bombing of civilian areas of Gaza - deeply disrespectful, a view shared by many. Braverman went further, ordering the Metropolitan Police to ban it. They refused, on the basis that they are only legally empowered to do so if they believe there is a serious risk of disorder which they are not confident they can contain. Since the last two marches have gone off without incident, they say they don't have grounds to believe this one will be different. The fact that it is scheduled to take place on the same day as the Remembrance ceremony they consider not to be sufficient since both the timing and the location are separate. Braverman then wrote a piece in the Times saying the police are biased in favour of "pro-Palestinian mobs", which has served only to divide both the country and her own party. It also caused Keir Starmer to take a side - which, mindful of the antisemitism during the Corbyn era - he tried hard not to do. He does not back calls for a ceasefire in Gaza as he follows the line of Israeli - and British Government - line that this will only allow Hamas to regroup, but he is as intolerant as anyone of a Home Secretary trying to give political orders to the police. (But then, he'd be finished as Labour leader if he did otherwise.)

Mactep, I can well imagine that Singapore is an oasis of calm that barely notices that anything's been happening in Israel. I wonder, though, whether the same is true of your immediate neighbours to the north and south.

[Мастер]

Mactep, I can well imagine that Singapore is an oasis of calm that barely notices that anything's been happening in Israel. I wonder, though, whether the same is true of your immediate neighbours to the north and south.

Just guessing, no hard evidence here, but I am thinking the Indonesians probably don't care much. But the Malaysians do.

[Heid the Ba]

So far the only arrests in Lunnin' init have been counter protestors. Added to which the Royal British Legion, the main veterans' organisation, have stated they have no problem with the march being held today. Today being Armistice Day, I suspect many of those objecting to the march had no idea that Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday, when the main commemoration is held, aren't the same thing.

[Heid the Ba]

Just read there have been Molotov cocktails on a synagogue in Berlin.

For what it's worth, I used to work near Synagogue Street here.

I never saw any evidence of a synagogue.

There is one near here but you have to look quite hard to see it.

As an indicator of Scotland's changing demographic, the former Miners' Welfare in Dunfermline is now the mosque and Islamic Cultural centre.