Sir Richard Ottaway, Tory MP for Croydon South and a long-time leading light of the Conservative Friends of Israel grouping, said this during the debate that preceded the vote:
“I was a friend of Israel long before I became a Tory. My wife’s family were instrumental in the creation of the Jewish state. Indeed, some of them were with Weizmann at the Paris conference…
I have stood by Israel through thick and thin, through the good years and the bad. I have sat down with Ministers and senior Israeli politicians and urged peaceful negotiations and a proportionate response to prevarication, and I thought that they were listening.
But I realise now, in truth, looking back over the past 20 years, that Israel has been slowly drifting away from world public opinion. The annexation of the 950 acres of the west bank just a few months ago has outraged me more than anything else in my political life, mainly because it makes me look a fool, and that is something that I resent…
Under normal circumstances, I would oppose the motion tonight; but such is my anger over Israel’s behaviour in recent months that I will not oppose the motion. I have to say to the Government of Israel that if they are losing people like me, they will be losing a lot of people.”
Indeed they will, and already have.
People are waking up to the reality of Jewish power the whole world over. They’ve known about it in Palestine since the nineteenth century, as did the informed and concerned few elsewhere. The Jewish problem, the negative effect that Jewish ethnocentrism tended to have upon the countries and peoples that offered the Jew sanctuary, was openly discussed in that century.
However, from the 1920s onwards the intellectual elites in the West began cosying up to Marx, Trotsky and the destructive ideas of the Frankfurt School and now political correctness, of which dread philosophy non-criticism of minorities, particularly the Jewish minority, is a major component, has progressively taken a hold of our world.
This, together with the unlimited funds available to the Jewish lobby through their control of the banking system has ensured the eternal compliance of the ‘Friends of Israel’ in Westminster.
Until now.
Our politicians, of course, have always been aware of the ‘reality of Jewish power.’ We, however, have not. We may have felt it, sensed it, had it damage ua at the sharp end, but we have been taught, via the media brainwash and the race laws, to keep off-message opinion deep inside, for fear of reprisal from the always vigilant guardians of politically correct thought, speech and behaviour.
Such fear has markedly diminished, thanks to the informative power of social media, in recent times.
I may be wrong but I doubt that our politicians would have been so keen to abandon their long-standing partiality to all things Zion without the ever-increasing outrage that found its voice in cyberspace.
When Richard Ottaway speaks of ‘people like me’ he’s not kidding. He has, over the course, of his political lifetime, been as onside as it’s possible to be. Despite Israel’s dreadful treatment of the Palestinians over the course of many years, he and so many others like him, ‘stood by Israel through thick and thin.’
Until now.
It is perhaps, instructive to note that Ottaway, himself, admits arriving at his current assessment of the situation because Israel made him ‘look a fool’ and not because it was the right thing to do. Personal resentment, along with a dash of ‘world public opinion’ (social media), saw him vote for Palestine’s recognition.
Anyway, as I keep saying, it’s not just me now. It’s not just the ‘anti-Semites’ and ‘racists’ (both terms invented by Jews), it’s the ‘Friends of Israel’ as well.
Perhaps those of you whose only motivation is self-preservation and promotion better come aboard with the truth-tellers before you get shipwrecked with only the ‘Government of Israel’ for company.
Let’s take a look at what some of the other parliamentarians said.
Grahame Morris, Labour MP for Easington, who must be applauded for securing the debate, was first to speak.
Sir Gerald Kaufman was, for the majority of his long tenure as Labour MP for Manchester, Gorton, a fiercely staunch and committed Zionist.
Not so now however.
Former Colonel Bob Stewart, DSO, a former United Nations commander in Bosnia, is now Conservative MP for Beckenham.
Sir Alan Duncan, Tory MP for Rutland and Melton, said this:
Former Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, Labour MP for Blackburn, said this:
Sir Nicholas Soames, Conservative MP for Mid Sussex, said this:
A pretty diverse bunch hardly likely to be antagonistic towards our Hebrew chums without very good cause I think you'll agree.
Former Foreign Secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, of whom Graham Morris, Gerald Kaufman, Jack Straw and Alan Duncan were all somewhat critical, is also Jewish.
Consider these statements from those who have invariably not only kept their own counsel on this issue, but have routinely defended the indefensible in Israel.
Or, at least, they appear to be.
People are waking up to the reality of Jewish power the whole world over. They’ve known about it in Palestine since the nineteenth century, as did the informed and concerned few elsewhere. The Jewish problem, the negative effect that Jewish ethnocentrism tended to have upon the countries and peoples that offered the Jew sanctuary, was openly discussed in that century.
However, from the 1920s onwards the intellectual elites in the West began cosying up to Marx, Trotsky and the destructive ideas of the Frankfurt School and now political correctness, of which dread philosophy non-criticism of minorities, particularly the Jewish minority, is a major component, has progressively taken a hold of our world.
This, together with the unlimited funds available to the Jewish lobby through their control of the banking system has ensured the eternal compliance of the ‘Friends of Israel’ in Westminster.
Until now.
Our politicians, of course, have always been aware of the ‘reality of Jewish power.’ We, however, have not. We may have felt it, sensed it, had it damage ua at the sharp end, but we have been taught, via the media brainwash and the race laws, to keep off-message opinion deep inside, for fear of reprisal from the always vigilant guardians of politically correct thought, speech and behaviour.
Such fear has markedly diminished, thanks to the informative power of social media, in recent times.
I may be wrong but I doubt that our politicians would have been so keen to abandon their long-standing partiality to all things Zion without the ever-increasing outrage that found its voice in cyberspace.
When Richard Ottaway speaks of ‘people like me’ he’s not kidding. He has, over the course, of his political lifetime, been as onside as it’s possible to be. Despite Israel’s dreadful treatment of the Palestinians over the course of many years, he and so many others like him, ‘stood by Israel through thick and thin.’
Until now.
It is perhaps, instructive to note that Ottaway, himself, admits arriving at his current assessment of the situation because Israel made him ‘look a fool’ and not because it was the right thing to do. Personal resentment, along with a dash of ‘world public opinion’ (social media), saw him vote for Palestine’s recognition.
Anyway, as I keep saying, it’s not just me now. It’s not just the ‘anti-Semites’ and ‘racists’ (both terms invented by Jews), it’s the ‘Friends of Israel’ as well.
Perhaps those of you whose only motivation is self-preservation and promotion better come aboard with the truth-tellers before you get shipwrecked with only the ‘Government of Israel’ for company.
Let’s take a look at what some of the other parliamentarians said.
“It is now more than 20 years since the Oslo accords, and we are further away from peace than ever before. An entire generation of young Palestinians… has grown up to witness a worsening situation on the ground. We have seen a significant expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, heightened security threats to both sides, punitive restrictions on Palestinian movement, economic decline, a humanitarian crisis in Gaza of catastrophic proportions and the construction of an illegal annexation wall through Palestinian land…
Today might be a symbolically important step, but it will not change the facts on the ground. The continuous blockade of the Gaza strip will not relent and the day-to-day reality of life under occupation will not change for the ordinary Palestinians. Opponents of the motion will use the well-worn argument that statehood should come through negotiations and not unilateral action.
Let us make no mistake about this: to make our recognition of Palestine dependent on Israel’s agreement would be to grant Israel a veto over Palestinian self-determination...
Recognition is not an Israeli bargaining chip; it is a Palestinian right… The lack of equity between Israel and the Palestinians is a structural failure that has undermined the possibility of a political settlement for decades… The majority of Israeli Government politicians flat-out reject the notion of a Palestinian state. There are currently no negotiations and, as Secretary of State John Kerry admitted, it was Israeli intransigence that caused the collapse of the latest round of talks.
Israel has been unwilling to offer a viable Palestinian state through negotiations. If the acceleration of the illegal settlement enterprise had not already proved that, in July Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu once again ruled out ever accepting a sovereign Palestinian state in the west bank…
The right hon. and learned Member for Kensington (Sir Malcolm Rifkind) said that Palestine did not have international recognition; the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have both said that Palestinian statehood should be recognised.”
Not so now however.
“There are 6 million Israeli Jews. There are 1,600,000 Palestinians in Israel, 2,700,000 on the west bank and 1,800,000 in Gaza. The Palestinians now outnumber the Israeli Jews, and that is without taking into account the 5 million Palestinians in refugee camps and in the diaspora. The big difference, of course, is that the Israelis have a secure state and the Palestinians live under oppression day after day.
The right hon. and learned Member for Kensington (Sir Malcolm Rifkind) wove a fantasy that the Jews were reunited when the state of Israel was created… His fantasy was that all was harmonious when Israel was created, but the Israelis were divided into three warring factions at that time: the Haganah, representing the official Jewish agency; the terrorist organisation Irgun Zvai Leumi; and the terrorist Stern gang. Israel nearly broke out into civil war immediately after it was founded because Irgun insisted on having its own army in an independent state. So the idea that Israel was somehow born in a moment of paradise and that all that surrounds the Palestinians is stress and damage is a fantasy…
The Israelis are harming the Palestinians day after day. Last week the US State Department denounced a settlement expansion of 2,600 that the Israelis are planning. Last week the new president of the New Israel Fund, Talia Sasson, Jewish and pro-Israel, denounced the expansion of settlements again in the west bank. The Israelis, with the checkpoints, the illegal wall and the settlements, are making a coherent Palestinian state impossible.
That is why it is essential to pass this motion, because it would be a game changer. The recognition of Palestine by the British House of Commons would affect the international situation. This House can create an historic new situation. I call on right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House to give the Palestinians their rights and show the Israelis that they cannot suppress another people all the time… They are harming the image of Judaism, and terrible outbreaks of anti-Semitism are taking place. I want to see an end to anti-Semitism, and I want to see a Palestinian state.”
“Israel is in breach of the contract set out in the Balfour declaration stating that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.’Almost all of the soldiers and policemen Bob Stewart mentions here were murdered by Jews. That is a historical fact that you won’t find in many modern British histories, certainly not those our schoolchildren get to read.
In the light of the Nakba and everything since, that seems like a sick joke. The failure of the international community to recognise the state of Palestine has helped Israel to ignore this commitment…
This Sunday at Eden Camp in north Yorkshire there will be a gathering of the Palestine veterans. They will parade at 1 o’clock, but many of them will not be able to walk very far, if at all, they are all over the age of 80. They went to that land in 1945 as a peacekeeping force, but lost over 700 members of the armed forces and 200 police. I believe that we owe it to them for tonight’s motion to succeed.
Many were not conscripts; many were veterans of Arnhem, Normandy and Bergen-Belsen. Many felt, and still feel, betrayed by Israel and question the sacrifice that so many of their colleagues made. If this vote on recognising the right of Palestinians is won, they will very much welcome it, but it has been so long in coming.”
Sir Alan Duncan, Tory MP for Rutland and Melton, said this:
“I think that all of us in this House, to a man and a woman, recognise the state of Israel and its right to exist. Our belief in that should not in any way be impugned. Let us also be clear that that same right has not been granted to Palestine; in my view, it is high time that it was. It is the other half of the commitment that our predecessors in this House made as part of the British mandate in the region.
I cannot think of any other populous area of the world that is subject to so many resolutions but is not allowed to call itself a state... I do not quite agree with my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kensington (Sir Malcolm Rifkind) in his assessment of what it takes to justify granting statehood to, and recognise, a country…
Recognition of statehood is not a reward for anything; it is a right. The notion that it would put an end to negotiations, or somehow pre-empt or destroy them, is patently absurd; Palestine would still be occupied, and negotiations would need to continue, both to end that occupation and to agree land swaps and borders. Refusing Palestinian recognition is tantamount to giving Israel the right of veto.
When I was a Minister of State at the Department for International Development, we supported the Palestinian Authority... it was there, a responsible organisation. It is not their fault that they are occupied, and so often have their revenues withheld by the Israelis; if they were not withheld, Palestine would not need a penny of British aid…
It is only through recognition that we can give Palestinians the dignity and hope that they need to engage in further negotiations and to live in a country that they can properly call their own…
Settlements are illegal, and the endorsement of the Israelis’ right to reject recognition is tantamount to the endorsement of illegal settlement activity.
A lot of people feel intimidated when it comes to standing up for this issue. It is time we did stand up for it, because almost the majority of Palestinians are not yet in their 20s. They will grow up stateless. If we do not give them hope, dignity and belief in themselves, it will be a recipe for permanent conflict, none of which is in Israel’s interests.
The hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside, who speaks on every occasion on this subject, only ever catalogues the violence on one side, and this is a tit-for-tat argument. Today, the House should do its historic duty.”
“The ‘Road Map to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’ was promulgated at the end of April 2003 under the auspices of the Quartet—the UN, EU, US and Russia… The Government of Israel were signed up to there being a separate and independent state of Palestine. One part of the road map anticipated that Quartet members, which include the UK, could ‘promote international recognition of a Palestinian state, including possible UN membership’ as a transitional measure…
The Government of Israel disagree. They claim that recognition of Palestine as a state should be at the conclusion of any successful peace negotiations. But such an approach would give the Government of Israel a veto, even over whether such a state should exist…
The only thing that the Israeli Government understand, under the present demeanour of Benjamin Netanyahu, is pressure. What the House will be doing this evening will be to add to the pressure on the Government of Israel. That is why they are so worried about this resolution passing. Were it just a gesture, as the right hon. and learned Member for Kensington (Sir Malcolm Rifkind) implied, they would not be bothered at all. They are very worried indeed because they know that it will have an effect…
Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for nearly 50 years. It fails to meet its clear international legal obligations as an occupying power. In the last 20 years, as we have heard, it has compounded that failure by a deliberate decision to annex Palestinian land and to build Israeli settlements on that land. There are now 600,000 such Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem and the west bank. The Israelis are seeking to strangle East Jerusalem by expropriating land all around it, and two months ago, they announced the illegal annexation of a further nearly 1,000 acres of land near Bethlehem.
The Israeli Government will go on doing this as long as they pay no price for their obduracy. Their illegal occupation of land is condemned by this Government in strong terms, but no action follows. The Israelis sell produce from these illegal settlements in Palestine as if they were made or grown in Israel, but no action follows.
Israel itself was established and recognised by unilateral act. The Palestinians had no say whatever over the recognition of the state of Israel, still less a veto.”
“I think that I am right in saying that the last time a debate of this type took place was in 1985, which was a long time ago, and that is not to the House’s credit…
I am convinced that recognising Palestine is… morally right because the Palestinians are entitled to a state, just as Israelis are rightly entitled to their homeland. This House should need no reminding of the terms of the Balfour declaration, which rightly endorsed ‘the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people’ but went on to state that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.’
Ninety-seven years later, the terms of the Balfour declaration are clearly not upheld with respect to the Palestinians, and in Britain that should weigh very heavily upon us indeed. It is in our national interest to recognise Palestine as part of a drive to achieve lasting peace. We face so many dire emergencies in the middle east today; we cannot afford to add to them the continuing failure of the middle east peace process and the inevitable death of the two-state solution. This step by Britain and other nations is needed to galvanise talks that are paralysed and indicate that the status quo is not only untenable, but wholly unacceptable...
The cataclysm in Syria, the emergence of Islamic State and the 3 million Syrian refugees bringing neighbouring countries to their knees have made the situation in the middle east, already a cauldron, even more dangerous.Nicholas Soames is Sir Winston Churchill's grandson, Alan Duncan is gay, Jack Straw and Gerald Kaufman are Jewish and Richard Ottaway is married to a Jewess.
Moreover, as others have said, 135 of 193 UN member states have already recognised Palestine in recent years… The act of recognition itself clearly does not wreck the prospects for peace.
What does impede peace is a dismal lack of political will to make the necessary concessions and a tendency in Israel to believe that it will always be sheltered by the United States from having to take those difficult steps. Recognition by the United Kingdom would be a strong signal that the patience of the world is not without limit.
Secondly, it is said that recognition would be an empty gesture that would not change the facts on the ground. That is true, but it is not a reason not to recognise Palestine, which would be purely a political decision by the United Kingdom as a sovereign Parliament. It would be a powerful gesture to Palestinians that they will obtain their state in the future after 47 years of cruel and unjust occupation.”
A pretty diverse bunch hardly likely to be antagonistic towards our Hebrew chums without very good cause I think you'll agree.
Former Foreign Secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, of whom Graham Morris, Gerald Kaufman, Jack Straw and Alan Duncan were all somewhat critical, is also Jewish.
Consider these statements from those who have invariably not only kept their own counsel on this issue, but have routinely defended the indefensible in Israel.
“Such is my anger over Israel’s behaviour… that I will not oppose the motion.”
“We have seen a significant expansion of illegal Israeli settlements… punitive restrictions on Palestinian movement… a humanitarian crisis in Gaza of catastrophic proportions and the construction of an illegal annexation wall through Palestinian land…
The lack of equity between Israel and the Palestinians is a structural failure that has undermined the possibility of a political settlement for decades.”
“The Palestinians live under oppression day after day… The Israelis are harming the Palestinians day after day… The Israelis, with the checkpoints, the illegal wall and the settlements, are making a coherent Palestinian state impossible… Give the Palestinians their rights and show the Israelis that they cannot suppress another people all the time.”
“This Sunday at Eden Camp in north Yorkshire there will be a gathering of the Palestine veterans… They went to that land in 1945 as a peacekeeping force, but lost over 700 members of the armed forces and 200 police… Many felt, and still feel, betrayed by Israel and question the sacrifice that so many of their colleagues made.”
“Settlements are illegal, and the endorsement of the Israelis’ right to reject recognition is tantamount to the endorsement of illegal settlement activity."
"A lot of people feel intimidated when it comes to standing up for this issue… The hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside, (the Jewess, Louise Ellman) who speaks on every occasion on this subject, only ever catalogues the violence on one side.”
“The only thing that the Israeli Government understand, under the present demeanour of Benjamin Netanyahu, is pressure… Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for nearly 50 years. It fails to meet its clear international legal obligations as an occupying power… The Israeli Government will go on doing this as long as they pay no price for their obduracy.”
“This House should need no reminding of the terms of the Balfour declaration, which… state(d) that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.’ Ninety-seven years later, the terms of the Balfour declaration are clearly not upheld with respect to the Palestinians… Recognition… would be a powerful gesture to Palestinians that they will obtain their state in the future after 47 years of cruel and unjust occupation.”The times they are a-changing, folks.
Or, at least, they appear to be.
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