Peter Oborne Again
I have written before of my liking of Peter Oborne’s pieces in the Daily Telegraph. I have very little in common with the man, and probably even less with his politics, but what comes through in his writings is that they say what he really believes in, and that he holds both himself and others to a higher moral and ethical standard than what may be expected nowadays. In other words this isn’t someone who is writing to his boss’s orders. He doesn’t come across as a Kelvin McKenzie.
A couple of weeks ago he wrote about the relationship between Israel and the British Conservative Party here. He was brave to do this as the article was quiet critical of the unrestrained support given to Israel by the party. As others, including Alex Hilton, have pointed out it opens any writer making the criticism to attacks from a pro-Israeli lobby which brooks no such criticism. Basically what Oborne said about the Tories we could say something similar about Labour. The lobby’s attacks, including by many London Labour members, on Ken Livingstone before the London mayoral election could well have given the election to Johnson.
So take this as my agreement with Oborne that the Netanyahu government is doing its best to wreck any chance of a two-state solution and the settlement of the Middle East problem. Now this isn’t coming from someone, me, who could easily be called anti-Semitic. In fact you couldn’t even call me anti-Zionist as I have no problem with a Jewish homeland, and I don’t really have a problem with this homeland being in Palestine. I have a high respect for some of the Israeli statesmen and stateswomen of those times when I was growing up. The likes of Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan were heroes in East London back then.
Of course it’s a shame that Balfour could make a promise without giving any thought to those already living on those lands at the time. This just shows the arrogance of the old imperial mindset. At the same time what a shame that mosques are so often controlled by people far from enlightened, at times almost fascist in their dislike of outsiders.
I will end with a quote from Oborne and hope that you will be able to read the original article without having to go through the Telegraph’s paywall. On no account would I like to help the Berkeley twins make even more money.
I cannot speak for Britain’s Jewish community, but I have a strong impression that many of them would be delighted if Mr Cameron spoke out far more strongly than he has done so far. Indeed, it is essential that he should do so. Mr Cameron does not want to go down in history as the man upon whose watch all hope of a two-state solution died, and with it all hope of a secure and peaceful future for the country a Conservative prime minister helped to bring into existence.
