To the kind attention of the Leader of the Opposition
Dear Jeremy,
As you certainly know, last Wednesday Jews throughout the world observed Yom HaShoah, a recurrence instituted by the State of Israel. Please Mr Corbyn, take notice. Jews. Israel. Jews throughout the world follow the calendar of the State of Israel. Probably the Jews you know, and the Jews you like, pretend not to care for the State of Israel. But the majority do.
Anyway, Mr Corbyn, you yourself lit a yellow candle, like many Jews in this country, in memory of a Jew murdered during WWII. You also posted the photo on social media. For this, believe me, I am grateful. Because of the candle you lit, and the photo you posted on Twitter, now many of your comrades are now familiar with the name of Arlette Kaim, 5 years old, murdered in Paris in 1942.
Little Arlette, was one of the 13,000 Parisian Jews, (and more than 4,000 children), rounded up by the French police in July 1942. And I stress French police. Only in 2017 did Emanuel Macron, admit the responsibility of the French government.
It is not easy for a Leftist politician, who believes in human rights, to admit the failures of his ideology. You can write “human rights” in your Constitution, and proclaim that there is no difference between Jews and Christians, as the French did in 1789, but it did not help. French Jews were murdered nonetheless. That was the time when we Jews learnt that Zionists were right. Granting the Jews citizenship and equality on paper is never enough. The Jewish people need a State, to survive and defend itself.
So, Mr Corbyn, thank you for making your comrades aware of such complexity. Thank you to recall the death of little Arette Kaim, in the same city where, centuries before, the Declaration of Droits de l’Homme had been written and approved.
But with your permission, Mr Corbyn, or should I say comrade Corbyn, I would like to remind you of another Jewish child. Stefano Gaj Taché, 2 years old, murdered in 1982 on the doorstep of the main synagogue in Rome by a commando of (can I say?), Palestinian terrorists, members of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, a terrorist organisation no different from Hezbollah, (Can I say? well, you said it) Hezbollah, your friends. It was Simchat Torah, and the synagogue was full of children. The terrorists threw bombs and shot with machine guns. More than 35 Jews were seriously wounded. And then the killers managed to escape.
Yes, in the centre of Rome, a city which is twice capital (capital of Italy and of the Vatican) it had been possible for a commando of terrorists to kill and disappear without being caught. They must have had a lot of friends. Those people always have friends. You know that, Mr Corbyn.
Anyway, speaking of friends. In the week before the murder, Yasser Arafat had visited Rome. He was welcomed by the Vatican and by the Italian Government as a head of state. Arafat, indeed, had many friends. And a few weeks before the terrorist attack, during a demonstration of the Trade Unions, someone left a coffin on the doorstep of the Synagogue in Rome, on the very spot where Stefano Taché would be killed. And then, the coffin was full.
Who left a coffin during that demonstration? Nobody knows. Because, comrade Corbyn, let’s face it, during a demonstration, there are so many people and it is really easy to smuggle a coffin and leave it, unnoticed, on a synagogue’s doorstep! I am joking, obviously. And I am being sarcastic. The fact that these terrorists have never been caught is horrible. And even more tragic is that they had quite a number of friends and supporters. Of the many hundreds of Trade Unionists who took part in that demo, no one had helped to identify those who gave us such a gift. An empty coffin. Just to give us a warning signal about what was coming.
Of course, we could avoid it, if we condemned Israeli policies. Had the Jewish community in Rome acted like your comrades of JewDas, who want the people of the world to know that Israel does not speak for the Jews, the terrorists may have looked elsewhere. You know, comrade Corbyn, these were the words of the General Secretary of the largest Italian Trade Union at time. Implying that if you are a Jew and do not condemn Israel, then you know, something bad may happen. Because Palestinian terrorists have many friends. And because of these friends, we Jews cannot have justice.
Sometimes these friends behave cowardly, like those comrades who allowed a coffin to be left in front of a synagogue. Or like the good French citizens, who cowardly did not stop the police rounding up Jews. Those policemen had taken an oath to defend human rights Those French citizens believed in human rights. It did not help. For us Jews, it never helps. Antisemitism is stronger than any ideology.
Not by chance, antisemitism did not end in 1945. Antisemites are not only in the Far-Right, with shaven heads and macabre regalia. There is antisemitism on the Left. For example, denying to the Jewish people the right to self-determination, that is being against the existence of Israel as a Jewish State, is akin to antisemitism. For the simple reason that Israel is the only place in the world where a Jew can find refuge if and when things go bad, and let’s face it, in European history things tend to go bad pretty often, for us Jews. And when things go bad, being granted citizenship and protection of civil rights on paper by a non-Jewish State, such as France, simply does not work.
Neither is effective, the whole internationalist Communist mumbo jumbo, of which you sampled the Jewish variety during a so-called Seder. The Palestinian terrorists who murdered Stefano Gaj Taché, they were believers in the same Communist mumbo jumbo. And they have probably received help by local comrades. Certainly were comrades of yours those who left that coffin, destined to be filled with the small body of Stefano Gaj Taché, 2 years old.
Therefore, Mr Corbyn, dear Leader of the Opposition of Her Majesty, it is all fine and good that you have commemorated the victims of the Shoah, or Holocaust as you preferred to write, (why did you not use the Hebrew term, I wonder). But please spare a thought to other Jewish victims, innocent children, like Stefano Gaj Taché, murdered only because they were Jewish. Their families still demand justice.
And please, please, I know you care about Jews who are dead (prior 1948). But what about the Jews who are alive right now? Those Jews who know too well that only a Jewish State can grant us safety and justice. I am so sorry to note that you, Mr Corbyn, don’t seem to get it. Maybe it’s because of your friends.
Brighton and Hove Reform Synagogue, Shabbat Atzmaut 5778