THE POSTMAN KNOCKS TWICE: Hello, Jeremy Corbyn; Goodbye, Jeremy Corbyn
A recent press headline reads: ‘Labour’s Corbyn recognizes Israel’s right to exist’
By AVRAHAM AVI-HAI
Hello Jeremy,I want to tell you that I am very grateful for, and fully agree with your policy of “recognizing Israel’s right to exist within the 1948 borders.” This is such a good policy that it should be adopted by every country. After all, the effort to create and build Israel, the lives lost and the need to win battles have nothing to do with our existence. So, thanks Jeremy, for recognizing my “right” to exist.To repeat: recognition of a people’s right to exist in its own land is such a good policy it should be made universal. Without delay, Israel should recognize England’s right to exist within the borders of 1603, before Scotland was joined to England because a king of Scotland was made king of England.The same applies to Ireland, which was invaded constantly over hundreds of years by England and forced into a unilateral Act of Union in 1800. The English government was obviously guilty of war crimes: replacing populations, starving millions of people and forcing emigration of more millions. It took many an Irish rebel and much spilled blood to get the English out of Southern Ireland by 1922.Now look at Northern Ireland. Is it not true that England implanted English and Scottish Protestants in Ireland to keep the Catholic Irish in line? These settlements should have been evacuated. They were an impediment to peace for hundreds of years. Only when the two sides understood they were there to stay was an uneasy peace achieved.In addition, Jerry (may I call you Jerry, just by coincidence the nickname the English gave the Germans in both World Wars), England, having returned to its original borders, might consider whether Wales has been fairly treated. On this Welsh question, I lack sufficient information, so I’ll leave it.Once all this is achieved, that is full English withdrawal to its original borders, and England is no longer an occupier, you can deal with indemnifying the United Irish Republic and the Republic of Scotland. For this purpose, I propose hiring a good accounting firm along with a team of historians and economists, even if the companies or experts involved are Jewish. Jews have their use don’t they, if only not too often. Right?In addition, Jer, you are a socialist. Therefore the lands belonging to the royal House of Windsor and to the “titled aristocracy” descendants of strong-arm medieval land-grabbers should be returned to national ownership in England and in each of the countries, now free and independent, which once constituted the United Kingdom. Parliament must beg forgiveness from all of the former lands of the British Empire as well as Ireland and Scotland for the massacres, exploitation and outrages committed in the name of the Crown. The British Left, and you as their leader, must apologize to Israel for singling it out while your country executed Irishmen extra-legally, and while millions starved or were made refugees in Africa, and while over half a million Muslims, Christians and Kurds were killed in Syria – with nary a word from your pure-hearted Left.In truth, J., I don’t believe you will accept these terms of reciprocal policies. So why, Corbyn, should you “recognize” Israel’s right to exist? You are, sir, as ignorant of history as you are absent of common decency. Now since you passed only two A-level school-leaving examinations with the grade of E (the lowest), why don’t we help you learn more about the very name you bear? True not every “leader” was well-educated, But Winston Churchill, who had been a poor student, wrote great histories, meaning he had to study and research first.First things first, Corbyn, Jeremiah is a Hebrew name. It may mean “hold God on high” – or maybe “God will raise you.” Corbyn means a little crow or raven. (I will not let indulge myself by telling you what the word means in Ashkenazi pronounced Hebrew.)
And Jeremy Corbyn, as the raven in Edgar Allen Poe’s poem quotes, “Nevermore!” In modern English, “Enough is enough!”Finally, Mr. Corbyn, I will not shake hands with you as we say good-bye. Maybe now you know why, Anyway, I have a much better Jeremy to listen to. Hear this, as translated under the aegis of that same James who shlepped Scotland into union with England:He who scattered Israel will gather him,And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’For the Lord has redeemed Jacob,And ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he.Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion.(Jeremiah 31:10-12) And as we all know, crows cannot sing; they can only caw! Goodbye!The writer was born in Toronto when being a Canadian citizen meant also being a British subject. He is a social democratic liberal who once respected the British party system. As such, he neglected to reckon with British socialist antisemitism going back to the 1930s and the drawing room sneers of the so-called upper classes.