Israel: As Fanatical as Iran?

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a columnist for the UK’s Independent, regularly features on HonestReporting and its UK affiliate due to her propensity to describe Israel as a “racist” and “apartheid” state. Alibhai-Brown is also fond of taking pains to mention her many Jewish friends, as if this gives her some extra credibility when it comes to attacking the Jewish state.

Alibhai-Brown would therefore have known that her latest polemic would not provoke an immediate response due to its publication on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when Israel shuts down and most Jews would not be browsing the pages or the internet site of The Independent.

Alibhai-Brown writes:

As a supporter of the now crushed and broken reformers in Iran, I back the ultimatum to the fanatic and bellicose Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But what about that camel in the room? The one we all see but can’t point out? What about the only power in the Middle East, also fanatic and aggressive, which has a vast stockpile of weapons enough to obliterate the region? Listen people, we need to talk about Israel. And soon. Like now.

Irrespective of the issues surrounding whether or not Israel possesses nuclear weapons, it is simply absurd to equate democratic Israel with the terror supporting, Holocaust denying theocratic Iranian regime. Israel has never tested, used, or threatened the use of nuclear weapons, has called for the creation of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East and has stated many times that it will not be the first state to introduce nuclear weapons into the region.

Despite this, Alibhai-Brown continues to describe Israel as profoundly evil, drawing upon the UN Goldstone Report, which she describes as “sober” and “unbiased,” ignoring its many deficiencies that are continuously coming to light.

Referring to Israel’s military operation in Gaza, Alibhai-Brown refers to:

Children turned to ash, blistered mothers weeping, and on and on. There still is no respite for the hungry and dying in Gaza. If Israel can mete out such treatment and not be called to account, just think what the state feels entitled to do to Iran.

While Iran represents a genuine threat not only to Israel but to the entire world, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has used the latest developments in the Iranian nuclear crisis to demonize Israel, making false comparisons with the despicable Iranian regime and presenting Israel as uniquely cruel.