Here is a cross post from Ricard Millett’s blog

If you click th elink above you will see several images and video clips including one of me addressing the crowd.

Israel’s supporters out in force in Trafalgar Square.

Israel’s supporters came out in Trafalgar Square today to show sympathy with Israel as rockets continue to rain down from Gaza and to wish a happy 25th birthday to Gilad Schalit who is in his sixth year in isolation in Gaza having been kidnapped by Hamas from Israeli soil when he was 19.

There were some tremendous speeches.

Hasan Afzal, of British Muslims for Israel, said he supports Israel because it is “the only country in the Middle East where Muslims have freedom and democracy”.

Jonathan Sacerdoti spoke movingly about Gilad Schalit spending his 25th birthday “in prison, in Gaza with no contact with the outside world, his family or even the International Red Cross to ensure that his health is adequate”.

Joy Wolfe urged the crowd to ignore media lies about Israel and described Israel as a home for people of all religions.

She went on to call for an end to the double standards of the United Nations and some British MPs and said that Gilad Schalit probably doesn’t even know that today is his birthday and probably feels as if he has been forgotten. But she said that no one will rest until the Red Cross gets access to him and every government in the world is calling for his release.

It was an excellent afternoon arranged at very short notice by the British Israel Coalition and supported by Stand With Us.

It made a change from the previous Sunday’s terror rally at Trafalgar Square where the rhetoric called for war with Israel and signs called for Death to Israel. It’s a shame there wasn’t a similar pro-Israel rally at that time.

But with that in mind the Zionist Federation is arranging a counter-demonstration this coming Thursday from 6pm till 8pm outside the Royal Albert Hall where the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is playing at the BBC proms.

It is in response to a Palestine Solidarity Campaign anti-Israel protest. Some sort of disruption is also expected to take place inside the Hall while the orchestra is playing.

Nearest tube stations are South Kensington (District, Circle, Piccadily lines) and High Street Kensington (District and Circle lines).

It will be an opportunity to defiantly wave Israeli flags in the faces of all those whose sole desire in life is to see the Jewish state destroyed.

Can you believe this is what is allowed to happend on the streets of London with no police  intervention to arrest people for clear incitement to hatred and violence.

At the same time people are allowed to disrupt an Albert Hall concert, cause distress and harassment to an audience and get away without being arrested for public disorder.

“It is time, Brothers and Sisters, for Al Quds to be liberated. For Islam and people of the world who wish to pray there to the one God. And we say here today to you Israel, we see your crimes and we loathe your crimes. And to us your nation does not exist, because it is a criminal injustice against humanity. We want to see Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt go to the borders and stop this now. Liberate Al Quds! March to Al Quds!”

Read it all here in Richard Millet’s blog post.

This is a cross post from Dr Ron Weiser of the New South Wales ZC of a piece published in the Australian Jewish News

There is only one reason why the Palestinians are going to the United Nations in September hoping for a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State by the General Assembly.

It is because they are not willing to pay the one price demanded by Israel and the democratic world in negotiations.

And that price is the agreement that the State of Israel can exist and can do so in its current guise – as the Homeland of the Jewish People.
That is what is missing from the Palestinian resolution.
So called obstacles such as settlements, borders, Jerusalem etc are not the core issues at all.

Nor is the existence of a Palestinian State.

The core issue is whether the Palestinians and their supporters can tolerate a Jewish presence, of any size, in their midst.

The consistent policy of the Zionist Leadership has been “2 States for 2 Peoples”.

On the 29th of November 1947 that is in fact what the UN agreed upon in Resolution 181 – “A Jewish State and an Arab State”.

As we know, the Jewish People accepted this and the Arab People rejected it.
This has been the pattern ever since – post 1967 in August in Khartoum; Oslo in 1993 ; Camp David in 2000; Annapolis under Olmert; and times in between – our acceptance and their rejection.

And most importantly for those who continue to bury their heads in the sand both on the “ultra left” and “ultra right” – this is the public and repeated and sincere policy of the Netanyahu Government.

6 Israeli Prime Ministers (including Netanyahu) have offered the Palestinians a State, in return for the one real red line Israel has – no Palestinian Right of Return.
As the realisation has dawned on almost everyone, that the Palestinians mean something different from us when we each say “2 State Solution”, we have begun to emphasise that they need to recognise Israel as a Jewish State.

For clarity.

And to avoid the continuing Palestinian double speak to the world and perhaps especially, to their own people.

President Abbas’ stated aim is a Palestinian State where no Jews will be able to reside, alongside a State called Israel to which some 4.5 million claimed Palestinians will have the right to return and which will then be a supposed democratic Bi National State.

This is a reality that should be accepted by those within our community and those people who profess to be friends of Israel generally, when they attempt to lay blame for why no resolution of the conflict has yet occurred.

The constant belabouring of moral equivalence and of blame equivalence is erroneous and counterproductive. And it is doing exactly what it is designed to do – pushing our own youth away and depressing those who remain.

The Palestinians are continuing their strategy of trying to get what they want piece by piece, without ceding a single thing.

It is beyond time now for the world to finally tell the Palestinians et al a truth they have been avoiding for Israel’s entire existence and at the same time, lying to their own people about.

The Jewish State is here to stay.

This UN move is a tactic designed to avoid that truth.

Dr Ron Weiser AM
Hon Life President ZC of NSW