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BLT butty aside, though, I have delayed sending my invitation to Mr Ed because since then, our man has got something else between his teeth: Israel. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse. Just when the anti-Semitism in France, Denmark, Norway, Hungary is mounting savagely, just when our cemeteries and synagogues and shops are once again under threat. Just when the virulence against a country defending itself, against 4,000 rockets and 32 tunnels inside its borders, as it has every right to do under the Geneva Convention, had been swept aside by the real pestilence of IS, in steps Mr Miliband to demand that the government recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel. 

Cue wild applause from the unions, smiles of approbation from the far Left — and shock horror from the Jewish Board of Deputies. Why would he do this? And why now? Many people on the Left and the Right would like to see a two-state solution if it means peace and mutual respect. I am one of them. Any future Palestinian state will be entirely free of Jews, of course. Yet the Jewish state is labelled "apartheid" with 1.7 million Arabs in residence and represented in parliament.

(1) It is a historical fact that the Arab states refused such an offer in 1937, 1948, 2000 and 2008. They have yet to accept Israel's right to exist and their constitutions and broadcasts to this day extol its destruction. 

(2) How can you recognise a state until its borders are decided?

(3) If you recognise a state you can officially arm that state. Already billions of pounds have been allotted to rebuild Gaza. Ha! Rebuild the tunnels and reequip the arsenal. Oh, how the propaganda has worked on these clever, concerned people again and again and again. If Hamas and Fatah cared one iota for the Palestinians, might they not have built schools and hospitals and streets for their people the first time the billions poured in and were converted into weaponry and hotel suites in Paris and citizens were used as human shields?

I'm an actress, Ed, and I am often commended for my timing. Frankly, my dear, yours sucks. The world is exploding around us. Isis is beheading our civilians while raping and pillaging across Syria and Iraq. Presidents Putin and Assad are playing such heavy-handed games that we don't know which rebel group to support. Hong Kong may be about to see a replay of Tiananmen. Islamist terrorism in every spot on the globe — and if one Jew had been responsible for any of those bombings, there would, I am afraid to say, have been another Kristallnacht. At this point in our history you choose to back these footling backbenchers in this ludicrous piece of propaganda?

And tell me this, Mr Miliband, sir, where are the pictures of the civilian dead from the allied bombings over Iraq? On which front pages can I see them? The daily count of dead and maimed babies? The howling mothers and screaming old women we saw every day, five times a day, from Gaza? May I remind you that no one is tunnelling into Dover or sending rockets into Coventry, yet we seem to have every right to bomb the living daylights out of Iraq. Again. Conclusion: one law for the Israelis, another law for the rest of the world. Plus ça change.

So, come election day, I shall give my vote to another party. Almost any other party. Until my party is once more led by mensches.

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londonbloke
October 30th, 2014
11:10 AM
Sorry Maureen but I thought that lots of people did condemn the actions of our Government regarding the war in Iraq, including a million people on the anti-war march. Why's it wrong if they condemn Israel for the same thing?

Observer of the Scene
October 30th, 2014
9:10 AM
Welcome to vibrant tribal Britain, Ms Lipman. I'd suggest that if you didn't want Labour pandering to Muslims, you should have opposed mass immigration from Muslim nations. Because rumour has it that Muslim nations tend to have a fair few Muslims in them. Still, look on the bright side: Muslim immigration has certainly transformed stale pale cities like Rotherham, Rochdale and Oxford.

Steve Specterman
October 30th, 2014
9:10 AM
The day I noted that 80 out of all the Labour MP`s were pro Palestinian. I knew then that I could never vote for them.

Paul K
October 30th, 2014
8:10 AM
Thank you for standing up for sanity, Maureen. There are unfortunately too many who just keep their heads now under the pretense of political correctness. I truly appreciate you making yourself heard - and in such an eloquent way.

Herbert
October 30th, 2014
7:10 AM
'I have always been a socialist...' And everything in the article goes on to contradict this. Laughable.

Anonymous
October 30th, 2014
1:10 AM
So you're basically refusing to support Labour because Ed Miliband won't suck up to the Israeli government like his predecessors? And your attempt to equate criticism of the Israeli government's illegal occupation of Palestinian territories with anti-Semitism is deplorable.

Toothlight
October 29th, 2014
11:10 PM
Spot on, Maureen. Ed, scared of not getting the Muslim vote, hangs out Israel to dry, just like that slimy Gerald Kaufman.We should be worried about the USA with a President who claims, on French TV, his country is now Muslim and its citizens need to be educated about Islam.

Anonymous
October 29th, 2014
11:10 PM
There are some very nasty comments on here, and I'm sorry that some people find it necessary to do that, Maureen.

John Quinlan
October 29th, 2014
9:10 PM
If you are not a Liberal by 18 you have no heart, if you are not a Conservative by 40, you have no brain. What took you so long Maureen?

Dov
October 29th, 2014
9:10 PM
Thank you and well said. As socialist Jews both my wife and I have resigned from both the local and national Labour Party due to their overwhelming anti-Israel bias. This summer felt more like early 1930's Germany than Britain! Ed is too weak to stick to his convictions and is now just like Cameron, playing to whoever shouts the loudest. Shame on him.

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