1 min read
Ian Jack is fast becoming my least favourite columnist; a man who seems to deeply ignorant and utterly in thrall to prevailing liberal attitudes. A few Saturdays ago he wrote a piece which bemoaned the end of "the grammar school years" without considering that the cause might be, er...the end of grammar schools.
Today, he offers us 1200 words on how: Israel's behaviour towards its captive Palestinian population is profoundly racist, oppressive and unjust. That's because, he writes: According to United Nations figures, there are now 621 Israeli army checkpoints and barriers spread throughout the West Bank - this week Tony Blair was celebrating the good news that he had persuaded the Israelis to remove four of them (though "subject to Israeli security assessments") and at most of those we passed through we witnessed the same kind of caprice in action: Palestinians of all kinds - women, children, old men with hospital appointments - sent back for "security reasons" or because they had the wrong piece of paper, journeys abandoned or started again by circuitous routes. And not once - not once, anywhere in the entire piece - does he even mention the murder of 1059 Israelis by Palestinian terrorists since 2000, let alone consider its impact. Maybe, just maybe, that has led to the Israeli authorities being somewhat cautious at border controls. Or don't dead Israelis exist on your radar, Mr Jack?