About Me
- Born in Yorkshire, England.
- BA (Hons) First Class in Modern History and Economics, Manchester University.
- Lectured in Modern History, Manchester University and then worked in financial services until retirement in 2007.
- Made aliyah in 2008. Now live in Kibbutz Hamadia, in the Beit Shean Valley.
- Married.
- Political evolution from extreme left politics in youth to vague supporter in 1990s of a 'peace now' type approach.
- I now find it impossible to seriously envisage a 2 state solution (meaning 2 states for 2 peoples living side by side in peace and security).
- Because there continues to be steadfast hostility by all Palestinian political factions and leaders to the acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state.
- This means that the war continues.
My Email
Mission Statement
After a gap of over two years, I decided to resurrect Arguments4israel. The immediate cause was the war in Gaza. It seems to me that yet again this demonstrates the perpetuation of:
- a stunning lack of understanding in many parts of the world for Israel’s position;
- shocking distortions and omissions by wide sections of the western mass media;
- the feebleness of Israel’s public hasbara, which time and again fails to get across killer arguments.
All this has weakened and threatened Israel’s standing in the world and damaged its public and private diplomacy. The potential for extreme danger to Israel produced by this combination is frightening. It also gives rise to intense unease among friends of Israel who have to bear the brunt of aggressive anti-Israel hysteria and the intimidation and violence of anti-Semitism.
There is no avoiding the issue that there is a great need for developments in the Jewish State’s hasbara. Unfortunately, there are those who deny this by insisting that Israel’s hasbara is not to blame for its problems. There is truth in this; poor hasbara is not to blame for all problems, nor can superior hasbara solve all problems.
But the mixture of complacency and negativity revealed by this denial is a mistake. It treats hasbara as if it were mere PR and misses its role in providing ammunition, confidence and organization to supporters and sympathizers of Israel and to the mobilization of support. This blog will be directed at this.
