Being a Liberal American Jew in Britain Really Sucks

Poor Hadley Freeman. Her problem? It really sucks "to be a liberal American Jew in Britain."

You see:

"When I was growing up in New York, it was a given that one supported Israel. Israel, like America, was a country made from desperate immigrants. It was where my great-grandmother lived after seeing two of her sons go to the concentration camps, and where the memorial for my great-uncle Jakob, who was murdered in Auschwitz, was erected. Israel was the Holocaust's happy ending, and you only have to look at Hollywood to know how much America loves simple happy endings. Israel=good, Israel's enemies=evil antisemites." (Please don't tell me what I should think about Israel, theguardian.com, 9/8/14)

In Britain (where she scribbles for The Guardian), Hadley's pissed that "America's devoted support for Israel is... regarded by Europe with the same kind of disgusted bafflement with which it views the US relationship with guns," and that "not having a negative opinion of Israel is tantamount to not having a conscience."

And she's super pissed that a London theatre has baulked at hosting "the Jewish Film Festival... if [it] accepted financing... from the Israeli embassy."

In fact, she reckons that in Britain, "anti-Israel [sentiment] in Britain slips all too quickly into antisemitism."

Meanwhile, Israel ("the Holocaust's happy ending") has only just left off murdering and maiming thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Ghetto, reducing much of it to a smoking ruin. In OCCUPIED East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Israeli fascists - whether in or out of uniform - are offing Palestinians on a near daily basis. And on OCCUPIED Palestinian land, Jews-only settlements rise like mushrooms after rain.

But heaven forbid that any Brit should state the bleeding obvious - that Israel is a racist, apartheid state - within earshot of Hadley! Why, that'd be anti-Semitism!

But, and here's the wonder, when it comes to recognising racism in the good old US of A, the proverbial penny has no trouble whatsoever in dropping (even if it did take until 30 December, 2014). Here's Hadley, writing in her latest column:

"Sure most Britons knew before that the US had, shall we say, some racial issues. But 2014 was the year when it became an unavoidable truth that parts of the US are really, really, really messed up when it comes to race, and, unfortunately, many of the parts seem to involve law enforcement officials." (The main lesson I learned from 2014? Innocence is definitely dead now, 30/12/14)

Will there ever, I wonder, be a year for Ms Freeman when it becomes an unavoidable truth that Israel is really, really, really messed up when it comes to race?

Don't hold your breath, folks.

Now here's a great read: Forget those shredded children, Hadley Freeman is the real victim, craigmurray.org.uk, 8/8/14. Highly recommended.