Isreali Philharmonic Orchestra targeted by Protesters

I feel for the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra this morning after a small group of protesters wrecked their performance at The Royal Albert Hall last night. The concert had to be pulled live off air from BBC Radio 3. You can hear the protesters shouting: “Off, off, off,” on a recording featured on The Telegraph online today. What got me was that Communications Minister Ed Vaizey, who was in the audience, tweeted: “Demonstrators seemed to have turned the entire audience pro-Israel.”

I’ll say it again: Being Pro-Israel does not mean that you are anti-Palestinian or that you endorse every policy that the Israeli Government makes. I am pro-Israel. That doesn’t mean I support the denial of human rights. For all the protesters know, the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra doesn’t support oppression either. And yet they get booed off the stage purely because they are Israelis. No one equates the statement: “I am pro-American” with the same logic; that is: “I support all American foreign policy.” Why does this happen with Israel? Now it seems that anyone from Israel, whether that someone be a musician, an athlete, an artist or a writer, is a controversial figure merely for being Israeli. I remember meeting a tourist from Tel Aviv in a London pub. She hadn’t said anything more than where she came from, but it was enough for a couple of people around her not to want to have anything more to do with her.

Ed Vaizey’s final tweet last night was a link to this blog post, which is worth reading.

Israel and Palestine

I have not long returned from an intense week in Portsmouth covering media relations for the Methodist Church’s annual Conference. The Conference had such pulling power this year that we even had Ruth Gledhill (The Times’ Religious Correspondent) working in the Conference press office with us on Tuesday :) (she was there for the Archbishop’s address).

I have written a piece for CIF Belief on the incredibly painful decision the Conference took to boycott Israeli produce from Israeli settlements.

First Past The Post in Israel

The first thing that needs to be understood about the Israeli elections is that the election took place under a first past the post system.

Therefore, Kadima's 28 seats is more than Likud's 27 and means that Kadima is the winner. Period.

If the right wing is stronger as a whole when you add Yisrael Beiteinu to the equation, tough. That is the way first past the post works.

I support Livni's decision to reject a coalition and I think that her alternative of a rotating premiership is a much more practical and sensible solution.

Isreali Elections

Early reports indicate that Tzipi Livni's centrist Kadima Party is narrowly ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing Likud Party.

I hope she wins.

Stop The War Violent Protests

I have just watched BBC footage of the so-called "peace" protest today in London, which was organised by the The Stop The War Coalition, British Muslim Initiative and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Why is it that a hardcore of protesters outside the Israeli Embassy in London felt they had to had to throw missles, knock a policeman unconscious and smash the windows of Starbucks in their demonstration for peace?

Is trashing Starbucks a call for peace or a demonstration of hatred against the western world?

Anti-Semitism

People who think that what is happening in Gaza is not relevant to us here in the UK are wrong.

Yesterday Hamas and Al-Qaeda called for Jews all over the world to be killed. The London free papers last night carried reports of anti-semitic attacks rising sharply since the start of the war. The London Lite reported yesterday that there has been an attack on a synagogue in north west London, an assault on a Jewish motorist and a gang of youths shouting anti-semitic slogans at Jews in Golders Green. There was also an arson attack on the Jewish synagogue in Brondesbury on Sunday night according to The London Lite report. My Jewish friends are anxious.

"There is nothing we can do," someone told me on Monday night when I said I hoped that the Israeli air strikes on Gaza would stop and the seven year rocket fire onslaught from Hamas would end. "Yes there is," was my response. "We can apply international pressure."

War in Gaza

Isreali Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has engaged in international talks on ending violence in Gaza. The AFP reported yesterday that senior Hamas official Mushir al-Masri had made a televised broadcast outlining Hamas' intention to "fight until the last breath", but nowhere have I read of any Hamas leader being engaged in the kind of talks that Israel has been engaged in. Perhaps Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has taken up the role of negotiator for Hamas himself, as Globeandmail.com reports a turnaround in Abbas' attitude towards Hamas. That doesn't look good for Hamas' credibility.

Why can't Hamas represent itself diplomatically on the international stage? When America calls for a ceasefire, which means Hamas would carry the responsibility to stop rocket fire into Israel as well as Israel ceasing airstrikes in Gaza, the image of a Hamas response through eyes of the western media is oblique. The obscurity does nothing for Hamas in terms of crushing the image of Hamas as a party of Jihad.

The clamour for President-Elect Barack Obama to negotiate a ceasefire is getting louder.