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September 10, 2006

Minhag Anglia

Melanie Phillips, in one of her bravura pieces, calls British Jewry to task for failing to make a peep while Israel was culmniated left, right and center, during the recent War in Lebanon. Nary a peep from the Jews, which leaves the state of the argument about Israel in Britain solidly in the hands of Israel's adversaries.

With such a torrent of lies and distortions crying out for rebuttal, such behaviour is simply astounding. In Israel, people were amazed and distressed by the silence of British Jews. In America, they simply could not believe it.

American Jews expected Britain to respond as they would have responded to such an assault upon the Jewish people: full page ads rebutting the lies, mailshots to MPs, questions in Parliament about the blatant manipulation of journalists by Hezbollah, protests by prominent community leaders, public rallies, articles placed in the press.

There was none of that. It was left instead to a few non-Jews, such as Freddie Forsyth, Julie Burchill or other voices of gentile conscience, to ask why the country had taken such comprehensive leave of its senses.

It’s shocking — but not surprising. It’s minhag anglia, the historic custom of the leaders of British Jewry, to be craven and servile, to be terrified of rocking the boat and drawing attention to the fact that they are different, that they are Jews.

They are frightened for their reputations and their interests, for their place in British society. They are frightened of being accused of being partisan and not properly British, of being demonised as extremists, of being stamped as supporters of Jewish war criminals.

They are frightened, indeed, that the big lie that Israel is guilty of war crimes might be true. Above all, they are frightened that if they say anything about antisemitism they will provoke even more of it.

Alcibiades | 09/10/06 at 03:23 PM | Categories: - Across the Pond

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michael | September 11, 2006 12:45 AM

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