Forum Topics

Why is it only Israel that daily makes the news re 'genocide'?

Jews and many living in or are associated with Israel are the race that suffered the greatest genocide in modern times.For those that might have forgotten, some 6,000,000 were murdered on an industrial scale in Nazi Germany in WWII.This naturally has made them at least wary of how they are considered and treated in the West and the Middle East.Palestinians in their conflict with Israel are not experiencing such a fate.It is claimed that Israel has killed 52,000 Palestinians in Gaza.These are figures put out by the 'Gazan Health Ministry' (unelected).This is known to be run by Hamas  which itself murdered and sexually assaulted numerous women, children and the elderly in October 2023 and still hold many hostages as well as the corpses of those it murdered.It does not distinguish between civilian deaths and those of its fighting forces that imbed themselves amongst the general Populus.And of course Hamas is attempting to enact its Charter Declaration which calls for the annihilation of the state of Israel and its Jewish citizens.But we should not forget there have been and still are many conflicts raging around the world that have resulted in many deaths and claims of genocide.They received and get little attention by the anti-Israel bien pensants and fellow travellers.All the focus is on Israel.For example note the deaths resulting from the following -2023 Masalit, West Darfur Sudan - 15,000 deaths2020 Tigray Ethiopia 162,000 deaths2016 Rohingya, Myanmar - 9,000 deaths2016 China - Uyghur birth rate drops 24% because of genocidal persecution2014 Ukraine - 12,000 deaths by Russians2014 Iraq Turkman 3,500 deaths (by ISIS)2014 Iraq/Syria (Yazidis) - 2,100 deaths (by ISIS)2003 Darfur, Sudan - 98,000 deaths2002 North Kivu, DR Congo - 60,000 deaths1996 Kivu, Zaire - 200,000 deaths (Hutus)1994 Rwanda - 491,000 deaths (Tutsis)1992 Bosnia - 31,000 deaths (by Serbs)All inter-tribal as is the conflict initiated by Hamas against Israel.Cut Israel some slack.

John Hawkes ● 50d23 Comments ● 14h

Anti Semitism is normalised in middle class Britain

Telegraph article that I doubt will be published in the Guardian.https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/12/anti-semitism-normalised-britain-british-board-jews-israel/Two politicians from opposite sides ends of the political spectrum just completed a six month investigation into U.K. antisemitism. They were stunned by what they found. This is the full text from their piece which accompanies a report in The Telegraph: if people don’t take note I fear for the future of my community in this country. Neither Dame Penny Mordaunt nor Lord John Mann are Jewish, by the way.'We are hard-nosed politicians. We are not shrinking violets who run around being easily offended and we are used to dealing with the extremes of human emotions and catastrophe through our parliamentary case work in the past.Even with decades of these experiences, we were still stunned into silence by the evidence that we received as independent chairs of the Board of Deputies Commission on Anti-Semitism, particularly from young people in the Jewish community.We spent months hearing evidence from the community, professionals and students about their experiences of anti-Semitism and were alarmed by the combination of the rawness of the impact of people’s everyday experiences intertwined with the extraordinary routines and normality within which this is occurring.We are two non-Jews from opposite sides of the political spectrum and we have both come to realise that if our Jewish community is facing discrimination, this is a failure of our society. We must ensure that everyone enjoys the rights and protections that we have worked so hard to develop over many years.What are we meant to say as hardened politicians to a young Jewish female performer who told us that following October 7 venues and promoters, who the artist had worked with for years, no longer wanted to engage with her? Or to students who saw their research staff members coming from an encampment with a megaphone, and disabilities liaison staff members who Jewish student’s trust with their health records shouting for an Intifada?We were told about the experience of a Jewish member of a professional body describe that body as taking years to investigate incidents of anti-Semitism, and heavily editing articles about anti-Semitism and the Jewish experience so as not to cause “offence” to its to broader membership.We heard about the noisy demonstrations and how intimidating people find the current environment, but as we dug deeper what really scared us was the increasing normalisation of far more extreme, personalised and sometimes life changing impact directed at individuals purely and simply because they are Jewish. Worrying dilemmas of where Jewish professionals believed that their professional body was actively discriminating against them but where they required membership from this body to be able to work and acquire the necessary protections.One of our 10 recommendations is that anti-Semitism cannot simply be sidelined as an issue of religious difference, allowing organisations to pretend to themselves that they don’t have to deal with the thornier issue of racism directed against individual human beings.This is an urgent issue not just for the Jewish community but for the United Kingdom as a whole. Jews have lived in this country for centuries and they have contributed greatly to our country. Any attempt to marginalise British Jews in our professions, cultural life, public services or any other arena harm us all.We are all harmed if we tolerate the abuse of some of our fellow citizens by those who hold warped or extreme views. All we are trying is achieve is to add value to what others are already doing.Typically with reports, we send a list of recommendations to government and this report certainly will be placed on the table of the Prime Minister and his Ministers and that of every political party leader.But there is a wider responsibility that we are concerned about. All our institutions, public sector and private sector have a responsibility to their Jewish employees, customers, neighbours and partners, to ensure that they are treated with equal respect and are able to get on with their lives with no negatives.Our recommendations are intended to help everybody to step up to the mark and play their small role in ensuring that we can each say to our Jewish friends, whoever they are and wherever they are, that you are not alone in our country.'

Lucille Grant ● 15h1 Comments ● 14h

Ambulances to Ukraine

As some of you will remember I volunteered two years ago to drive an aid-filled ambulance to Ukraine for a remarkable undertaking known as Medical Life Lines Ukraine (MLLU).  Several of you made very generous donations at that time and in total I raised over £18,000 at the time.MLLU was set up and is being run by a small group of private citizens in Wimbledon and Putney.  They have done heroic work and have raised sufficient funds since the invasion began to deliver over 100 ambulances, medical equipment and other civilian rescue vehicles to the Ministry of Health in Lviv.  On two occasions convoys also took supplies of dog food for the rescue dogs trained to search for survivors in ruined buildings.  Photos of the very happy dogs and their handlers can be seen on the MLLU website https://www.medicallifelines.org.uk Now, I have volunteered to drive again and will be departing from Putney early on Sunday 7th September to join the other ambulances at Folkestone. From there the convoy will head across the Channel on the Euroshuttle (they transport us for free) before heading on to Lviv.Two years ago I did not think the humanitarian aid being delivered by MLLU would still be as vitally needed today as it was back then.  Tragically it looks like their work will continue to be needed for years to come given the continuing onslaught by Russian missiles and drones.  Ukraine remains a war zone and the regular air raid sirens remind any visitor that even Lviv, in the far west of the country, has been attacked.I have undertaken to raise at least an additional £7,000 to cover part of the cost of another ambulance in a future convoy and I am hoping that the spirit of generosity shown two years ago still lives on.  I would be truly grateful if you feel able to offer your support, some for a second time of course, but others for the first time.The link to my funding page is as follows https://www.justgiving.com/page/jonathan-callaway-1 where you will see I have almost reached my initial target.  I hope to raise far more of course and I can assure you every penny gets spent on humanitarian equipment.  The costs of driving the ambulances to Ukraine, about 1,200 miles, are covered by the volunteer drivers, as are their return travel costs.Donations are UK gift aid compliant as they are routed through our partner British-Ukrainian Aid, a registered UK charity.Do please also share this as widely as possible with friends and contacts so I can raise as much as I possibly can for MLLU.With many thanks in advanceJonathan

Jonathan Callaway ● 4d3 Comments ● 1d

The case for LNB's

Studies have shown and indeed we have seen locally in the case of Nick Clegg, that having a bobby on the doorstep (Local Neighbourhood Bobby - LNB) 24/7 significantly reduces crime at that location.I would like to make my doorstep a local neighborhood bobby doorstep or LNB.Why my doorstep you may ask, when crime in other areas is higher?Because people do not always obey the law!Besides there is so much crime that putting a bobby (LNB) on my doorstep will not make that much difference! It may go up slightly but that is offset by the benefits to me.Of course when I leave my doorstep (LBN), I will still expect to be protected by the police that serve the rest of the borough!Perhaps we should throw in a NHS doctor (LND) or even a dentist (LNT) and other resources meant for the general population.Or even a LTN:Studies have shown that stopping people driving on my road reduces accidents on my road.I of course will expect to be able to drive on other people's roads.I can justify it with the letters LTN!I think you get the idea.In the past, London did not have a 20 mph speed limit and blocking off speeding traffic though side roads was a safety issue. There was also the pollution issues in the past.Both these points are no longer valid if you listen to Labour supporters.Because many main roads including URR are 20 MPH because that makes them safer and they are also clean because of ULEZ, and Labour said ULEZ is the same as clean air!Those of us that live in the real world know this is just political nonsense.But more seriously people are being killed by buses and HGV's due to poor junctions and road layouts and the size (weight) of modern buses.Unfortunately more people are going to be killed due to converting mega sized buses to be electric and hence they will be heavier with faster acceleration.I'm actually a fan of electric vehicles which London has a proud history of 100 years ago.We actually need a more efficient, smaller lighter vehicles that are frequent  - not the dinosaurs from past decades with USB added.We need to ignore the nimbys and fanatics and look coldly at not just what is possible but what we can afford.

Ed Robinson ● 4d2 Comments ● 3d