Blog 127 - Thoughts From My Safe Room

A WhatsApp message from Tel Aviv

Among all that has been written about current events in Israel this post from a British acquaintance, in Israel for a meeting of the Trustees of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, resonates strongly. So strongly, that I asked its author Tony Angel, a highly regarded retired London lawyer, if I might republish it in my blog.

It speaks for itself.

Here it is :

So, the UK government and the BBC have finally utterly lost the plot.

I'm in the safe room of my Israeli holiday home sheltering from the 7th missile barrage in 2 days and listening to the BBC quote casualty figures for Israel and Iran as if it were a cricket match.

Except that, in the one case, the targets are soldiers at ballistic missile batteries targeting Israeli civilians, nuclear facilities creating nuclear bombs to destroy Israel, and senior officers in the IRGC – designated a terrorist organisation and the main instrument of repression in the Islamic Republic, also undertaking terrorism in the UK.

In the other, Iran is firing ballistic missiles indiscriminately at Israeli civilians - 600 so far in three days, compared to the 1000 fired at Ukraine in three years. By tomorrow I suspect Israel will be the country to have been targeted by more ballistic missiles than any other country on earth, despite being 1/27th the size of Ukraine.

There is no equivalence.

In what consistently scores as one of the happiest countries in the world, people continue to go about their daily lives. When lockdown ends, I go out into the street to see a lady walking her dog, a couple of kids playing on the corner, the corner shop is open, life goes on. Because Israel has poured its wealth into building protection, not complete but substantial, for its people from those who truly wish to commit a genocide.

Iran promises to wipe Israel off the map every day. It is in the charter and DNA of Iran’s proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis; all are terrorist organisations. It is in the actions they all take when they fire missiles at civilian targets. Actions taken without the slightest interest in the consequences for their own people; indeed, their interest is in maximizing deaths to slander and delegitimise Israel. To Islamist fanatics, death in the effort to kill Jews is an honour; the dead should be grateful for the place in heaven their martyrdom brings them, even if they had no free choice in the matter. Matthew Syed in the Times spoke of Iran sending 11 and 12 year old children to walk into minefields to clear mines during the Iran - Iraq war. Nothing has changed. Their religious fanaticism gives them a concept of the value of human life we in the west do not comprehend, yet we negotiate as if their value system is the same as ours.

Meanwhile, on the radio, I listen from my safe room to the BBC, and a supine British government afraid to speak the truth for fear of losing votes, whitter on about the need to de-escalate.

De-escalate? So that Iran has enough time to complete the construction of its nuclear bomb? This is the Iran that in the middle of Tehran has a stopwatch counting down to the date of Israel's destruction as pronounced by the Ayatollah. This is the country that swears that Israel must cease to exist, that has uranium purified to a level that has no conceivable use other than to create a nuclear bomb and has lied about it for two decades. Israel as the world's only Jewish State, and it and we diaspora Jews have learned that if somebody swears to annihilate you it is wise to take them seriously.

This is the same BBC which long ago completely lost the plot in Gaza. Yes, there are a 56,000 casualties according to the Hamas terrorists - but nearly half of them are Hamas terrorists, and the greater part of the rest were deliberately put in harm's way by an organisation that, in preference to building a country, used western aid to build 500 kilometers of tunnels under Gaza to protect itself (no civilians allowed), and put the population, hospitals, schools and mosques on top of them as a human shield. However, painful it may be, and however many precautions Israel may take, the fact is civilians will die if that is the means of defense. The obvious point is to callout Hamas tactics, to demand the release of the hostages, to demand the surrender of a genocidal death cult. After 20 months we are still waiting.

Yes, the same BBC that talks about mythical ethnic cleansing, and has never once mentioned the actual ethnic cleansing of Jews from Moslem lands, from approximately 850,000 Jews in Arab countries and Iran in 1948 to 12,700 in 2000. The same BBC that complains Israel does not believe in a two-state solution (a solution they accepted several times over decades from 1937 onwards to have it rejected every time by the Palestinians), never even asking the question of Hamas, an organisation that, like Hezbollah and Iran, have always rejected completely the existence of any Jewish State whatsoever.

Plainly they haven't listened to a single word the Islamists’ leaders have said time and time again in public before and since 7 October. For a supposedly leading news television station and its supposed reporters that's pretty appalling.

Meanwhile, on British streets people shout their support for merciless, genocidal, Islamic extremists. Gays for Gaza, unaware of what would happen to them the moment they stepped into Gaza. Left wing socialists clamoring for an autocratic theocratic state. Feminists shouting to be dressed in burkas and oppressed by Islamic law. Students caught up in the woke fad of the year.

Insanity is extremely contagious.

So, the French have only suddenly discovered there is huge Muslim Brotherhood network across their country that actively teaches the horrors of democracy and the wonders of theocracy alongside, of course, anti-Semitism and the need to annihilate the Jews. We almost certainly have the same thing in the UK - we just don't want to look for fear of what we will find.

Like the Hobbits from Lord of the Rings, the West has known peace for so long we’ve lost the capacity and the imagination to realise that there are people out there who want to hurt us, and we seem to be blissfully unaware there are people out there protecting us.

Fortunately, there is one country that knows what it has to do, even if much of the rest of the West has forgotten that, if you want freedom and democracy, you need to be prepared to fight for it. And on the issue of Iran, the entire country of Israel is united.

Here, amidst the bombing (which kills them too) two million Arab Muslims, three times as many as the number of Arab Palestinians in 1947 (more genocide?), live a free and democratic life. They have equal rights, able to choose burkas or bikinis. They contribute a great deal to society. Muslim Arabs comprise 25% of Israel’s doctors. They also make up a substantial portion of nurses (27%), dentists (27%), and pharmacists (49%).

Which takes me to why I am here in Israel. I came to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, established under the British Mandate whose founding Board included Albert Einstein, Martin Buber, Chaim Weizmann and Sigmund Freud, and to meet some medical students we in the UK are fortunate enough to sponsor there. They span the diverse Israeli population from ultra-orthodox to secular Jews, from Arab Muslims to Druze. Men and women in equal numbers who inspire us with their desire to do good in the world, not destroy it.

I also came as Chair of an immune-oncology company here developing anti-cancer drugs, part of an Israeli eco system that has made world leading medical and technological advances, developing world leading IT, supplying the NHS with 20% of its drugs, second only to the US in start ups.

So, I'll stop now and try and grab a couple of hours sleep before the next wave of ballistic missiles tears into civilian buildings. A down-payment on the genocide Iran is seeking, but will never achieve.

Thank you Tony Angel.

Lastly, many of you have been in touch to enquire about our son James, of whom I wrote in my previous Blog 126. He is at Kishorit, his special needs kibbutz home, where he seems completely fine. On Sunday morning my wife and I received this below from Kishorit’s director Shuki Levinger. I am sharing it because it exemplifies Israel’s protection for its population to which Tony Angel refers.

Good morning

To Kishorit families

Status update:

From the moment the event began, we moved to emergency procedures -

Staff members were moved to housing and emergency work within the village.

From the beginning, we moved to overnight stays for members inside the shelters.

* The dining room is closed. * Breakfast and dinner are sent to rooms.

* Work in all branches as usual.

* Lunch is eaten in the branches.

* There is no work outside of Kishorit and there are no trips to Karmiel.

* Some of the classes and the gym will operate according to daily announcements.

You are welcome to get in touch with the Social Workers to update or be updated.

Stay safe

Shuki Levinger שוקי לוינגר

C.E.O. מנכ"ל

It is the existence of this protection which has made possible Israel’s assault on Iran’s nuclear program. My son James’ life at Kishorit was threatened by Hezbollah. A nuclear armed Iran would have brought it to an end.

smo 16.06.2025