BY ANDREW MILNE
What happens to Israel today is what happens to the rest of the West tomorrow.
‘It is time for the silent majority in the UK to raise their voices,’ says Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, speaking after the stabbing of two Jews in Golders Green. I have a problem with the Jews:
I adore them. I love them like the brothers and sisters they became the year I spent in Israel.
As a student I’d lived in Golders Green in the ’70s and was familiar with Israeli banks on the high street and kosher cuisine in the cafes. Nevertheless, nothing prepared me for the exuberance and loud enthusiasm that blasts through Israeli life. During the year I spent in Israel, Independence Day fell on 7 May. Being a shy Brit, it took some getting used to.
Moreover, Britain has always had an awkward reputation in Israel. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War, the British ran what was called the Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948. Back then, some civil servants were as biased against the Jews as they are now. Like many, I strove to redress the balance, for I came to love this place as much as my own country.
If Britons were enthused with Lawrence of Arabia stories, several bucked the incipient anti-Semitism. Several servicemen went native, embracing the imperatives of the children of the promise. For instance, Major General Orde Wingate, who later set up the Chindits guerrilla teams in Burma, was stationed in Palestine before the war. A devout Christian and passionate fox hunter, he studied Hebrew. An early proponent of unorthodox warfare, Wingate developed Special Night Squads in a bid to stop rising terrorism. From this, he helped the Israelis build what became the Israeli Defence Force.
Another colonel had a pack of hounds flown out from England. In the north, where he was stationed, he was distressed to learn settlers were being regularly targeted by Arab terrorists. In those days, Jewish immigrants would buy sub-standard land. I lived in a valley that had been a malarial swamp. The Israelites drained as much as they could and planted eucalyptus trees, which soaked up water.
‘Trouble is, once we improve the land, the Arabs want it back,’ a kibbutznik told me. God gave the land to Israel. Right down the centuries of Roman and Turkish empires, pockets of Jews survived. The Children of the Promise never really left. To them, the land is intrinsically bound up with Judaism. ‘Next year in Jerusalem,’ goes the prayer. ‘If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning … let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.’ The British left in 1948, and Jerusalem was reunited in 1967.
Independence Day for the ancient land of Israel is more than flags and bunting. Day and night, Israelis praise life itself. It’s a celebration of still being here, of being in control of events, of living life to the full.
The importance of Judaism is not readily understood nowadays. However, Israel parented the redemption of all mankind. As a Christian, I know that Jesus is a Jew, Our Lady is a Jewess, the apostles — all of them — Jews. Christians often feel like strangers in strange lands. My own country has changed beyond recognition. Comforting to recall Jesus saying as he stood before Pilate, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’
One afternoon in Jerusalem’s Old City, I understood this sitting in a café across the road from where Pilate once sat in judgement. Two green-uniformed IDF soldiers lounged at the next table smoking. A bearded orthodox priest in a black pillbox hat read a newspaper. The radio was tuned to a pirate radio station, Voice of Peace. I had rarely felt quite so at home.
Jerusalem, with its bricks, beams and cobbles, is a physical place, reflecting the coming of God as flesh and blood. Not an insubstantial, curtained revelation, but a place of wood and stone, of blood and skin.
Now is the time for the silent majority to speak out. Israel’s struggle is our struggle. Like it or not, we are engaged in a war against the terrorists of Tehran’s IRGC, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
Last year, intelligence chief Ken McCallum said MI5 had uncovered over 20 Iranian terrorist plots. From Upper Galilee to Upper Islington, the enemy remains the same. We need to recognise this and go after the enemy as the fox-hunting colonel did in 1947.
According to legend, the British colonel trained his hounds to hunt down terrorists. He enjoyed some success at this. An alarmed intelligence official slunk down from Jerusalem. The colonel, rather pleased with himself, answered the questions with enthusiasm.
The Chief Rabbi is right. I have long had enough of people criticising Israel, slagging off the IDF and rubbishing Benjamin Netanyahu — whom I much admire. Many qualify their anti-Semitism by saying: ‘I’m just being anti-Zionist.’ No, they are not. Judaism and Zionism are one and the same. The land of Israel is the soul and struggle of Judaism. The world’s oldest faith blesses the heartbeat and heritage of all Christians who understand the unique role of the Children of the Promise in our redemption.
What happens to Israel today is what happens to the rest of the West tomorrow. Therefore, I stand by Israel. Like the fox-hunting colonel, I make no apologies for it and will not be silenced.
The intelligence official probed a little further. ‘How do they hunt?’ ‘When the call comes in,’ the Colonel bellowed, ‘my men assemble the hounds. We go to the site of the attack and give them the scent. On a good night, off they go.’
We can imagine the night hounds of Upper Galilee calling up the chase as they sing out across the night. The Intel man asked again if this hunting really worked. ‘I should say so,’ the colonel replied, smiting his thigh. ‘Why, only last night a chap gave me a five-mile point.’
Sir Ephraim! Be assured of our prayers and support. We will look out for practical ways to help. The black-clad terror supporters have shouted long enough. It is time for the silent majority to speak up. To ‘raise our voices joyfully as one.’ The Night Hounds of Upper Galilee shall ride once more.
The writer is practicing catholic based in the west of England. His book Children of the Resurrection is available on Amazon.