Of the 16 million Jews in the world, just under half live in Israel. Of the other 8.5 million, most support the State of Israel, in the sense that they regard it as a mustering point “come the next pogrom”. In fact as the ‘Falachi’ airlift and the raid on Entebbe made clear, in exchange for this support the State of Israel regards itself as duty bound to protect Jews no matter where in the world they happen to be.

But there’s a flip side to this extra-territoriality. And that’s that, whether rightly or wrongly, Jews, no matter where in the world they happen to be, are held responsible for the behaviour of the State of Israel. More particularly, whether rightly or wrongly, Jews in diaspora in Europe and the Americas are bearing at least some of the consequences of the war crimes currently being committed by our ‘parent’ state against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Is this fair? Yes and no. Yes in the sense that all is fair in love and war. But no in pretty much any other sense. I’ve been to Israel. And to be honest, I don’t much like being in a place, even as a visitor, where the hate, both incoming and outgoing, is palpable. But “come the next pogrom” would I avail myself of the Law of the Return? Of course I would.

In my being utterly ashamed of what my co-religionists are doing – and ‘ashamed’ doesn’t come close to how I feel about what’s happening! – does this make me a hypocrite? No and yes. It’s not my shame that makes me a hypocrite. It’s that this hypocrisy exacerbates the shame.

Categories: Angst, Editorials, Everything You Wanted to Know About What's Going On in the World But Were Afraid to Ask, Social and Political Philosophy

Tags: Gaza, hypocristy, Israel, Law of the Return, Palestine, war crimes, West Bank