The Express
August 11, 2006 Friday
U.K. 1st Edition
Anti-Israel hypocrites need a history lesson
By Frederick Forsyth

IT MUST surely be true that the level of lies and hypocrisy that a society can tolerate is in direct proportion to the degeneration of that culture.Personally I am not particularly pro or anti Israel, pro or anti Arab or pro or anti Islam. But I do have a dislike of myth, hypocrisy and lies as opposed to reality, fairness and truth.Watching the bombing of Lebanon it is impossible not to feel horror and pity for the innocent civilians killed, wounded or rendered homeless. But certain of our politicians, seeking easy populism and the cheapest round of applause in modern history, have called the Israeli response "disproportionate". Among these politicos are Jack Straw and that master of EU negotiations, William Hague. That accusation can only mean: "disproportionate to the aggression levelled against them". Really?Why did the accusers not mention Serbia? What has Serbia got to do with it? Let's refresh our memories.In 1999 five Nato air forces - US, British, French, Italian and German - began to plaster Yugoslavia, effectively the tiny and defenceless province of Serbia. We were not at war with the Serbs, we had no reason to hate them, they had not attacked us and no Serbian rockets were falling on us.But we practically bombed them back to the Stone Age. We took out every bridge we could see. We trashed their TV station, army barracks, airfields and motorways.We were not fighting for our lives and no terrorists were skulking among the civilian population but we hit apartment blocks and factories anyway. There were civilian casualties. We did not do it for 25 days but for 73. We bombed this little country economically back 30 years by converting its infrastructure to rubble. Why?We were trying to persuade one dictator, Slobodan Milosevic, to pull his troops out of Kosovo, which happened to be (and still is) a Yugoslav province. The dictator finally cracked; shortly afterwards he was toppled but it was his fellow Serbs who did that, not Nato.Before the destruction of Serbia, Kosovo was a nightmare of ethnic hatred. It still is. If we wanted to liberate the Kosovans, why did we not just invade? Why blow Serbian civilians to bits?Here is my point. In all those 73 days of bombing Serbia I never heard one British moralist use the word "disproportionate".The entire point of Hezbollah is not to resolve some border dispute with Israel; its aim is to wipe Israel off the map, as expressed by Hezbollah's master, the crazed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.That aim includes the eradication of every Israeli Jew; ie, genocide.Serbia never once threatened to wipe the UK off the map or slaughter our citizens, yet Straw, in office in 1999, and Hague, leading the Conservative Party, never objected to Serbia being bombed.As an ex-RAF officer I am persuaded the Israeli fighter pilots are hitting civilian-free targets with 95 per cent of their strikes. These are the hits no TV network bothers to cover. It is the five per cent that causes the coverage and the horror: wrong target, unseen civilians in the cellar, misfire, unavoidable collateral casualties. Unavoidable?Israel has said in effect: "If you seek to wipe us out we will defend ourselves to the death. You offer us no quarter, so we will offer none to you. As for the non-involved, we will try to avoid you. But if you choose intentionally, inadvertently, or through the stupidity of your government to protect and shelter the killers among yourselves then, with deepest regret, we cannot guarantee your exemption." Yesterday we Brits learned that certain elements in our society had tried to organise a mass slaughter of citizens flying out of our airports. We will have to take draconian measures against these enemies in our midst. Will Messrs Straw and Hague complain our methods are disproportionate?Not a chance. Now that, dear readers, is blatant hypocrisy.ON AN almost daily basis our palsied apology for a government is having to admit the truth of independent report after report: each flatly contradicts what ministers have been telling us for years.Those who claimed the official propaganda was rubbish are being wholly vindicated.Such as? Well, if you penalise marriage and make divorce a mere formality there will be more divorces and children will suffer emotional trauma. True after all.If you make drug-buying and taking easier, the drug problem will get worse, not better.True, at last. If you give a country with a serious alcohol problem all-day, all-night boozing, the scourge will get worse until it threatens the fabric of society itself. Just been confirmed. If you flood the place with casinos you will soon create a gambling addiction problem. Just been admitted.Now, Home Secretary John Reid has conceded that if you don't crack down hard on street violence and no-ceiling immigration, both problems will intensify. Oh, and it is not racist to say such things after all.Unfortunately, Reid admits reality in almost the same breath as he announces his ministry is not fit for purpose and can therefore do nothing about it.Any chance of an apology for those, like this newspaper, who were right all along?Do not even bother to wait around for it.