Letters
Ken Livingstone
18 April 2005
Dear Sir
I would like to thank Ken Livingstone for drawing attention to ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the Arab-Israeli conflict. He could use the term to refer to the Hebron massacre of 1929, the wars of 1948 and 1967 to ‘drive the Jews into the sea,’ or the bloodthirsty aspirations of Hamas and the PLO. In each case, the enemies of the Jewish state have sought to render it Judenrein, while receiving widespread support for their goals in the Arab world. By contrast, the flourishing Arab community in Israel only proves how dismal the Israelis really are at ethnic cleansing.
Livingstone asks the Jewish community what more he can say. I will answer him. For one thing, he can cease using language about the Jewish state which is deeply inappropriate and designed to cause maximum offence. He has labeled Ariel Sharon a ‘war criminal’ for the terrible events at Sabra and Shatila but for which the Israeli leader bore only ‘indirect responsibility.’ He has accused Israel of ‘crimes against humanity’ and a policy of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in 1948, while fully aware of the terrible resonance of those terms for Jews worldwide. In the latter case, he has seemingly ignored the fact that the Palestinian exodus, regrettable as it was, resulted from a genocidal war launched by the Arabs to drive the Jews into the sea. He has singled out Israel for opprobrium while ignoring the vastly worse human rights violations of states like North Korea, Zimbabwe, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Russia and China to name but a few. For a man who claims to be the champion of minority rights, he has embraced a homophobic Muslim Sheikh who does not believe in equality for women but does support terror attacks against Israelis. Livingstone has compared Jews signing up for the IDF to Muslim terrorists and used offensive language to a Jewish journalist. Instead of building bridges with the Jewish community, he has alienated it by ill judged remarks, arrogant behaviour and a misjudged political agenda. If Mr. Livingstone can’t see what else he can do, there is little hope for him.
Yours sincerely
Jeremy Havardi
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