“This morning the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o’clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.”

So began the second world war. Tricked by Hitler at Munich, Chamberlain was not going to tolerate his crimes any more.

JIHAD

The aggression against Israel and the possibility of a general war has been significantly encouraged by President Joe Biden’s predictable appeasement of the Wests’ enemies, including his revival of the Obama-Biden administration policy of not only unleashing but also subsidising massively the nuclear ambitions of the America-hating Iranian mullahs.

Sadly, Biden’s election was supported by the American mainstream media and most of the Australian commentariat, just as they are increasingly supporting Hamas.

It is not that Hamas ever hid its intentions. Article 13 of their Covenant declares that there is no solution “for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad” and that international conferences are a “waste of time” and “an exercise in futility”.

Article 32 incorporates that notorious and evil fabrication beloved of the Nazis, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

It is no surprise that at the height of the current crisis, the senior Hamas official Fathi Hammad would tweet: “People of Jerusalem, we want you to cut off the heads of the Jews with knives. With your hand, cut their artery from here. A knife costs five shekels. Buy a knife, sharpen it, put it here and just cut off (their heads).”

While elites may favour the terrorists, Israel practises a higher morality, doing what few powers have ever done.

Where possible she tries to warn civilians in buildings cynically used by Hamas to secrete rocket launchers and other military assets. Although foreign journalists were given an hour to get out before bombs fell, they still denounced Israel rather than Hamas.

The Biden administration even dared to blame Israel for provoking the Hamas rocket attacks, with national security adviser Jake Sullivan expressing “serious concerns about planned evictions of Palestinians from their homes in Jerusalem”.

LITIGATION

The truth is that the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood was Jewish prior to the Jews’ expulsion in 1948 by invading Arab forces who illegally leased their homes to Arabs.

In 1967, Israel prevailed against another invasion and liberated all Jerusalem with an Israeli court subsequently finding for the original owners’. It was then generously agreed that the Arab lessees could stay, provided they paid the legal owners a fair rent. They never did.

After decades of litigation, another court finally ruled that the defaulting tenants and squatters could be evicted. These legitimate evictions have been cynically used as a pretext for raining down rockets onto Israel.

This has not stopped Western elites from protesting and demonstrating. But blaming Israel or claiming that she is equally at fault only encourages terrorism as well as anti-semitic hate crimes.

Despite universal outrage over the Holocaust, anti-semitism has been growing in Western countries, including even in Australia.

I was horrified over two decades ago when I saw security guards outside Sydney synagogues. I was told that such protection was also common outside schools and even kindergartens.

During a protest march a few years ago, windows of Sydney’s St Andrew’s Cathedral were smashed, the demonstrators justifying this on the ground that they thought it was a synagogue.

CARVED

Then there is increasing elite support for “a Palestinian State”. As explained in 2017 in The Spectator (“Obama Notes: Stabbing an Ally in the Back”), Israel occupies less than a quarter of the League of Nations mandate where it was agreed there would be a homeland for the Jews who had, after all, lived in the Holy Land for over 3000 years.

Despite the Arab State of Jordan being carved out of that mandate, and Israel absorbing large numbers of often penniless refugees driven out of Arab States, there have been seven attempts to establish a second Arab State. But whenever Israel or the Jewish community has agreed, opponents either backed away or imposed ridiculous conditions.

The Left used to be pro-Israel, but no longer. When Australia changed its UN vote on Palestine, then Foreign Minister Bob Carr justified this by asking how would he have explained the previous position “from the steps of the mosque at Lakemba?”