Crawford-Browne treads a very well-worn path

MIKE BERGER

Mike Berger copied us on the following letter he submitted to Business Day today:

Terry Crawford-Browne treads a very well-worn path (“Israel needs to comply”, Business Day 18 Sept); it’s one he can do in his sleep – and perhaps that’s the problem. Even the readers know what’s coming.

Let there be turmoil in the Middle East or in the Muslim world. Let fanatical Islamists terrify moderates into silence. Let tens (or hundreds) of thousands of fellow-Muslims be slaughtered in internecine strife. Let honour killings, the abuse of women or homosexuals and the oppression of other minorities stain the fabric of Muslim societies struggling to reconcile their belief system with the values of a modern, democratic world. Let terror become a way of life for thousands of Muslim youth indoctrinated by a radicalised clergy or despotic backward cultures, Crawford-Browne will find a way of dragging Israel into the debate.

He knows the drill by heart. Never forget to mention “apartheid”, even though Judge Goldstone (the same Judge Goldstone so beloved by the anti-Zionist community for his hatchet job on Israel – later retracted – in response to the Gaza war) had this to say in the New York Times regarding the “apartheid” blood libel: “One particularly pernicious and enduring canard that is surfacing again is that Israel pursues “apartheid” policies… In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid… The charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a false and malicious one that precludes, rather than promotes, peace and harmony.”

Courtesy of Obama’s bungling and Putin’s Russia (Crawford-Browne has charming bedfellows) Israel’s “nuclear” arsenal is dragged out of the closet to excuse Syria’s chemical weapons. Well everyone, even the most brain-washed academic or leftist anti-Zionist ideologue, knows why Israel has nuclear weapons. The editors of the Business Day know why Israel has nuclear weapons. It is the same reason that law-abiding citizens in a lawless and viciously dangerous neighbourhood may purchase a gun.

Israel’s Jews have no intention of going the same way as the millions who died in World War 2 or in the pogroms or in the many other episodes of slaughter of defenceless Jews in Europe, especially, but also in the Middle East. Thus they hold and keep nuclear weapons as the ultimate deterrent.

And much to the frustration of Crawford-Browne and his like, but much to the relief of Jews and decent people everywhere, they will continue to hold them until stability and sanity returns to the region. May it happen soon even if only to spare us more letters from Crawford-Browne.

Mike Berger