“In a way, these Palestine enthusiasts resemble medieval Crusaders, who dreamt of recapturing Jerusalem because it was the place where Jesus died and rose again. Muslims, of course, detest the word `crusade’, partly because they deny the crucifixion of Jesus and regard the symbol of the cross as idolatrous, but their mentality is similar, from the other side of the religious fence. The equivalent of a crusader is a jihadi. Some of them assert a sacred right for Muslims to control the third holiest place in Islam, Jerusalem – by force if necessary.
Even those mainly white pro-Palestinian activists, presumably including Mr Polanski, who have no interest in religious questions, regard the place as holy in their political world-view. To them, it is the crucible of the `colonial’ oppression of the `wretched of the earth’ by Americans and British and `Zionists’, with their vast powers conjured up in their fevered imaginations. If I were a voter in Holborn and St Pancras, I would feel angry with any candidate playing this game. And if I were a Jewish voter, I would be afraid.”
Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph (£)
Moore is writing about next week’s by-election for the parliamentary seat of Holborn and St Pancras. A leaflet image from the Green Party leader, Zack Polanski, a candidate, features a flag in the background that is unidentified but not the flag of his party. It is red, white and green. The unnamed flag is that of Palestine. So a candidate in an election to the House of Commons chooses, as his main flag emblem, that of a disputed geographic area, for as Moore says, Palestine isn’t and has never been a country with its own laws and government.
The late Rod Liddle, who knew how to be rude in his articles with tremendous enthusiasm, once dubbed Mr Polanski a “snaggle-toothed halfwit”. The danger is that it is too easy to dismiss this man as a fool. He is undoubtedly a very foolish man in some ways but he has a certain scruffy cunning.
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