Stop demonising Israel

Learn from Israel. Ayaan Hirsi Ali. H/T Notasheepmaybeagoat

“Israel from the time it was founded has had to deal with this. Over time and in a painful way Israel developed an infrastructure. It is legal. It is counter-terrorism measures; it’s intelligence. They know what they’re doing. 
We should stop demonising Israel, we should start learning from them, and by my knowledge Israel hasn’t declared war on Islam. Israel collaborates with some of the Muslim countries when they want to collaborate with Israel, but Israel is in a place now where in terms of fighting domestic terrorism they have made such headway that the scenes we’ve seen in Paris are unthinkable.
Yes, the terrorists are using knives and cars and other desperate measures but the mass murders of Israelis on Israeli soil is unthinkable because of the measures that they’ve put in place, and I think we have a lot to learn from them.”

She’s right that Israel is dealing with exactly the same thing, and she’s right that they have made headway in dealing with domestic terrorism by implementing rigorous counter terrorism measures.  

She’s right that we should stop demonising Israel and she’s right that Israel has not declared war on Islam. But I doubt if  she is right to say with confidence that mass murder on Israeli soil is unthinkable.

Here is Jeremy Corbyn:

“I want to start, Mr Speaker, by expressing the horror of all those on this side of the House at the events in Paris on Friday evening and our continued solidarity with the victims and all those affected by conflict and terrorism, whether in Paris, Beirut, Ankara Damascus or anywhere else in the world. Nothing can justify the targeting of innocent civilians by anyone.”

Jeremy Corbyn refrained from mentioning Israel. Perhaps he can’t bear to utter the word “Israel”, but of course he doesn’t regard Israeli civilians as innocent. On the other hand he did say “all those affected”, so one can’t be sure whether the violence perpetrated by his friends are included or excluded from this vaguely-defined condemnation

For the purposes of this blog, the take-away message is “We” should stop demonising Israel.