Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

Apparently not who we thought:

But sometimes a story emerges that requires outright condemnation. On this occasion, the condemnation goes to the British Government. The government – our government, supposedly representing you and me in its interaction with people abroad – wants to label goods as coming from the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, so as to help consumers boycott them.

As it happens, I have misgivings about the settlements and think that those who call for a return to old borders have a point. But only people with no sense of history could think it unobjectionable to start branding Jewish goods like this.

Haaretz has more, there is both more and less to this than meets the eye:

According to European Union law, many types of products, especially food products, that are imported from outside the Union, by law must be labeled with the country of their origin. The British government issued its recommendation after several NGOs and marketing chains asked for guidelines regarding the differentiation between settler products and Palestinian products from the West Bank.

According to the new guidelines, the British government recommends indicating whether the product was made by Palestinians or Israeli settlers on the label of every product originating from the West Bank

This is a no brainier. Nobody argued that the west bank was anything but Jordanian before 1967. Israel defeated Jordan in a legitimate war so the choice is either to recognize that conquest or not. I don’t hear anyone claiming it is part of Jordan, but instead they designate it part of a mythical state that doesn’t and never has existed.

Until or unless Israel cedes it it the products that come from the West Bank are products of Israel.

This is really more about European Bureaucracy than it is antisemitism but the self righteousness of those arguing for this differential (take a look at the comments at the linked site) reveal the motives for what they are. Let them answer this question if they dare?

Which brings us, of course, to the moral issue that has long been obscured and forgotten: why would “peace” entail the forced expulsion of at least 100,000 people, and even if a sovereign Palestinian entity were to arise in the West Bank, why would it have to be Judenrein?

Who knew that 65 years after it’s fall the Reich’s dream of Judenrien lands would be shared by so many who have such moral superiority; dare we say it; a Moral master race!

So I guess I’ll make your life easier and put it on now.

“But DaTechGuy”, say you, “you’re not Jewish, you’re Catholic and a Sicilian American, why do you wear the patch?”

My answer? I hope to follow the example of that good fictional priest Fr. William O’Malley from Lee Marvin’s last movie:

Abdul: What is your name?
Father O’Malley: William O’Malley.
Abdul: I did not call you.
Father O’Malley: You called for all the Jews. I’m Jewish, just like Jesus Christ. You take one, you gotta take us all.

That’s good enough for me.

Update: Is the irony that this story comes out on the first day of Hanukkah enough for you? Let me wish all my Jewish readers a happy and blessed Hanukkah.

For our Protestant friends who don’t include the book, the Biblical story of that first Hanukkah is here.