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Simon Rocker

UK Jews are viewed through Israel’s image

February 10, 2009 09:06

Writing on Jewish-Christian relations in the most recent edition of the Anglican newspaper, Church Times, Reform movement head Rabbi Tony Bayfield touches on a sensitive issue.
A newsreader's use of the phrase "Jewish state" reminds him that "Jews are defined significantly today by the image of the Israeli. Even if we wanted to, and most of us do not, we cannot escape that".
The full version of his article is only available online to subscribers. But here's another section:
"The fact remains that the image of the Israeli, and therefore of the Jew, has changed - particularly in Britain, where the reporting has focused on the suffering of the Palestinians, in an understandable but naïve and manipulated way. We are no longer David but Goliath; we are no longer the oppressed, but the occupier...
"It will take a long time for us to assimilate the consequences of that image change, and for Christians to grasp that it is only a media-inspired image. Already in the Jewish community, our feeling that, with some honourable exceptions, nobody understands our situation is intensifying. It is also hard to escape the impression that, once again, we are about to be let down by our Christian brothers and sisters in our time of need."

 

February 10, 2009 09:06

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