Author: Glen Berd

A friend in Israel writes : Explaining something that people abroad cannot understand - even, I sometime feel, Jews in the diaspora. Every one one of us here in Israel is either bereaved or knows someone bereaved. Our soldiers are our boys and girls, not some faceless professionals. In the reserves are not just sons and daughters, but mothers and fathers. (A lady I know just lost her grandson, who insisted on protecting his country. He leaves a wife and a baby son) This article is by Melanie Phillips: She sums it up very well. Israel's invisible victims. The sickening reaction of so much of the western public to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza doesn’t just reveal a frightening degree of bigotry, double standards and moral bankruptcy. It doesn’t just involve a staggering absence of knowledge about the Middle East, the history of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland and the fact that the forces Israel is fighting are also waging a war against the...

A Brief History of Israel 1) Before the modern State of Israel, there was a British mandate, not a Palestinian state. 2) Before the British mandate The Ottoman Empire existed, not the Palestinian state. 3) Before the Ottoman Empire, there was a fully Islamic state of Egypt, not the Palestinian state. 4) Before the Islamic State of Egypt, the Empire of Ayyubid existed, not the Palestinian state. 5) Before the Empire of Ayyubid there was the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, not the Palestinian state. 6) Before the Kingdom of Jerusalem there were Umayyad and Fatimid empires, not the Palestinian state. 7) Before the empires of the Umayyad and Fatimid, there was the Byzantine Empire, not the Palestinian state. 8) Before the Byzantine Empire, there was the Roman Empire, not the Palestinian state. 9) Before the Roman Empire, the Hasmonean  state existed, not the Palestinian state. 10) Before the Hasmoneans, it was a Seleucid state, not the Palestinian state. 11) Before the Seleucids, the empire of Alexander of Macedonia existed, not the Palestinian...

Dear All As the nations of the world, and even the USA, are beginning to distance themselves from Israel’s fight to defeat Hamas, Jews in the Diaspora have to stand firm against the vilification of the Jewish State. I believe the best way to do this is to challenge misinformation, the distortion of the historical record and expose the bias and ignorance of antisemites. I hope you find my latest blog addresses some of these issues. With best wishes, Chag Chanukah Sameach Peter Beyfus The Wavering West DEC 3, 2023, 7:21 PM Kamala Harris, the Vice-President of the United States,  has urged the Israeli Government to be more stringent in avoiding civilian casualties in Gaza. The evidence from the IDF, supported by reliable independent sources, confirms Palestinians have been leafleted, giving fair warning of areas, under the control of Hamas, that are to be the target of military action. Criticism of Israel’s campaign to eliminate or degrade Hamas has been growing ever louder, indicating an unwillingness on the part of...

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Peter John Beyfus is an historian, published author, poet, and a person who prides himself on “thinking outside the box”. I have written many essays on Jewish themes, published in various journals, including ‘Wessex Jewish News’ and ‘Westminster Quarterly’, the magazine of Westminster Synagogue, London. The West must not fail Israel! Who would have thought it! Hamas, using the agreement to pause fighting in order to facilitate the delivery of aid to Gaza and arrange for the exchange of hostages for convicted Palestinians, playing games to assert its control over the brief period of a lull in the conflict? It was so obvious, to those of us of a cynical turn of mind, to anticipate Hamas would take every opportunity to exploit an agreement between itself and Israel to boost its propaganda war. Not only is there a great disparity between the number of hostages scheduled to be released compared to Palestinians held in Israeli jails, but only a trickle...

Nett Value? ABOUT THE AUTHOR Peter John Beyfus is an historian, published author, poet, and a person who prides himself on “thinking outside the box”. I have written many essays on Jewish themes, published in various journals, including ‘Wessex Jewish News’ and ‘Westminster Quarterly’, the magazine of Westminster Synagogue, London. The internet has proved a mixed blessing. As a way of communicating, almost instantaneously, with far distant family, friends and colleagues; as a resource of information with the proviso the provenance  of the data needs to be tested for accuracy; and to provide a sure-fire way of keeping abreast of current affair, it has ticked all the right boxes. The flip side is less benign, generating, through a host of social media platforms, vast quantities of misinformation, some of it unintentional, born out of either ignorance or hearsay, and some disinformation that is propaganda, a deliberate attempt to substitute facts for political rhetoric that is designed to mislead people into believing falsehoods, a kind...

A Royal Invitation Has Been Extended Something nice to think about - by Rebbetzen Anna Bergson  The Shabbos after the horrific October 7th attacks our Shul in St Anne's was full with many local dignitaries attending to show their support of British Jews and Israel. I was speaking to our MP Mark Menzies and told him how grateful I was to HM the King for receiving the Chief Rabbi at Buckingham Palace on the Thursday that week. I then happened to remark that surely their Royal Highness's the Prince and Princess of Wales are due a trip 'up North' soon? Surely a visit to a Synagogue would not only boost our morale but also their slick PR image supporting small communities etc.... (No ulterior motive or agenda at all going on here on my part eg I dream about meeting the Princess of Wales and asking her if I can borrow some of her wardrobe which would make fabulous Shul outfits for me...cough...cough...) I got such a...