Genuine friends of Israel are becoming harder to find while fiendish foes seem to be multiplying like metastasising microbes.
Friendships can often be fickle and transitory. They seem to transition at a drop of a hat from genuine understanding to full-blown animosity.
More often than not, political changes precipitate 180-degree turns, especially when elections loom, and it is deemed necessary to appease a major bloc of potential voters.
History has shown that placing one’s trust in an alliance with so-called friends never ends well. It may have had beneficial results for a short period of time, but as soon as the alleged ally perceived a more advantageous situation, the Jews were ditched, and trouble ensued.
We were warned by our prophets and sages not to make alliances with certain nations, and ignoring this advice inevitably led to conflict and strife.
Current developments are following a familiar pattern.
One of Israel’s few and dwindling genuine friends was the late Senator Lindsey Graham. His sudden and unexpected death is a great loss and the end of an era. He epitomised a generation of American politicians who not only had a deep spiritual affinity with reborn Jewish sovereignty but also an historical appreciation of facts and truth.
Moreover, he was undeterred by the rising tide of revisionist dogmas that have become the hallmark of a new generation of politicians, both on the left and right of the political spectrum. His determination to proclaim and advocate friendship and support for the Jewish State was a constant part of his political agenda.
Senator Graham called out political hypocrisy when he saw and heard it articulated. His refusal to bow down to the new libels of hate against Israel marked him as a champion of truth and integrity.
The fact that Iranian politicians and media have welcomed his demise speaks volumes about their moral bankruptcy and unmasked evil intentions. Those on the anti-Israel far left and right of US politics who have joined in to cheer his passing demonstrate precisely in which malignant direction the political landscape is headed.
The number of American politicians prepared to follow in Senator Graham’s footsteps is unfortunately shrinking.
We have to face the unpalatable reality that genuine friends will be a rarer breed in the immediate years ahead.
May his memory be a reminder of what true friendship is all about.
The list of foes is long and growing as time goes on.
This week’s list of cringeworthy candidates is merely the tip of an iceberg. They represent a cross-section of all those who spend an inordinate amount of time obsessing over Israel and its alleged accumulated sins. In no particular order of malevolence, they include the following:
Rama Duwaji – the wife of New York’s Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, trotted out an old hoary and discredited claim. At a Muslim retreat session she attended, she asserted that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was “born in Palestine under occupation.” This is an old recycled lie that usually sees the light of day every Easter and Christmas. It fits neatly into the Islamic gospel, which seeks to portray a country named Judea under Roman occupation as “Palestine” under Jewish occupation.
Like all lies, repeated often enough, it has become an accepted truth. The fact that the New York Mayor’s wife has now articulated it means that somehow it is the revealed dogma and can be utilised to stigmatise today’s Israel and Jews.
Andy Burnham – the UK Prime Minister designate, needed to desperately burnish his credentials with those in the Labour Party who believe that Israel is the devil incarnate and the source of all unrest and violence in the Middle East. These former Corbynites and knee-jerk Israel haters of the left are straining at the leash in order to enact punitive measures against Israel.
One of the well-worn strategies of politicians striving for leadership positions in Western democracies is to use Israel as a convenient punching bag. This guarantees support and applause from constituencies and sectors opposed to the very idea of Jewish sovereignty in their ancestral homeland.
Thus, Andy Burnham has felt compelled to make all the right noises about Israel’s sinful actions, past, present and future. While burnishing his record as sympathetic to Manchester’s Jews and promising to make UK Jews feel safe again, his obvious obsessive condemnations of Israelis who fight back and live in historically Jewish places will guarantee further future hate.
The disunited kingdom is rapidly becoming a dangerous place for Jews and with more politicians like Burnham the future looks increasingly bleak.
Rahm Emanuel is an American Jewish politician who aspires to enter the White House in 2028. His political aspirations, however, must surmount an increasingly impossible barrier. How does a Jewish candidate in today’s Democratic Party gain enough support from the fast-growing progressive democrat socialists? Their antipathy towards anybody tainted with Zionist sympathies guarantees a veto. That is why any candidate identifying as Jewish, no matter how remote their connection may be, must demonstrate firm anti-Israel credentials.
Rahm Emanuel, who realistically has no chance of winning the nomination in 2028, came to Israel in order to prove how he is best qualified to punish the country for its refusal to commit collective suicide. His speech in Tel Aviv was a classic case of chastising Israelis and establishing his qualifications as a fully paid-up member of the mutating “blame” Israel Democratic Party of the USA. The irony, of course, is that nothing will satisfy the rabid haters against Israel now infecting that particular party. Like other fools before him, Emanuel fails to see that no matter how many times he condemns Israel, the inciters will still reject him.
Another aspiring Democratic presidential hopeful is Ro Khanna, a longtime critic of Israel. What better way to garnish support from the haters and burnish your voter appeal than to visit Israel and create media headlines? There can be no better guarantee of full media exposure and free publicity, especially if you can manufacture a confrontational crisis. It is a winning strategy.
The script is simple. Visit the fake “occupied territories” and find a place where illegal buildings have been demolished. Interview some willing Arab families, and the resulting publicity is a surefire way to hit the jackpot. An added bonus is if you are intercepted by Israeli authorities. This can then be turned into a confrontation whereby an innocent politician is attacked or harassed.
Ro Khanna travelled without any Israeli security permission to a closed military area and was stopped and escorted out. Needless to say, the ensuing mayhem guaranteed the desired publicity and no doubt won him “brownie” points back in the Democratic Party.
Have you heard of the “elders”?
This is a select group established by the late Jimmy Carter, who ostensibly monitors and advocates on behalf of those oppressed by dubious regimes. It sounds a worthy cause except that when one digs a bit deeper one finds that this group has an unnatural obsession with Israel.
Two of the prominent “elders” are Mary Robinson, a former President of Ireland and Helen Clark, a former Prime Minister of New Zealand. I cannot think of a more lethal combination when it comes to Israel denigration. Both of them have a proven track record of accusing the Jewish State of committing a multitude of alleged crimes.
I mention these two elders in particular because, according to local news reports, they are due to arrive this week to “investigate violence against Palestinians in the illegal occupied territories.” Their findings and conclusions are, of course, pre-ordained. Apparently, they are due to give a press conference in “occupied” East Jerusalem at the end of their visit, which undoubtedly will generate the desired screaming headlines in the international media. Further condemnations will then follow through the United Nations and its associated bodies.
In the unlikely event that Clark and Robinson are denied entry to the country, you can be sure that more media frenzy will break out.
It is pertinent to ask these two recycled elders how many times they have visited Iran, where human rights abuses of political opponents and members of the Baha’i faith have reached epidemic proportions.
How many times have they visited North Korea or China, where thousands have been rounded up and sent to “re-education camps”?
How many other regimes and countries have they investigated?
If, as expected, the answer is zero times, one is forced to an inevitable conclusion.
Neither of them has visited the site of the 7 October Hamas pogrom and kidnapping.
That tells you everything you need to know about their real agenda.
Fighting foes with logic and the truth is a never-ending battle.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.