U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s distortions of the past and her dreadful hopes for the future can be bookended between the acts of two very different Britons: the revered General Bernard Law Montgomery and the reviled Jeremy Corbyn.
Between Oct. 23 and Nov. 11, 1942, Montgomery stopped Rommel on the desert sands of el-Alamein in Egypt, likely saving the lives of thousands of Jews in Palestine. Today, 77 years later, Corbyn’s control of the Labour Party has frightened and antagonized Britain’s Jews.
Tlaib may reflect only a small minority of Democrats in Congress, but of course her exploitation of the Holocaust is aimed at one day transforming that minority into a majority. We need to worry about that prospect because of Labour’s own transformation. Labour has been taken over by opponents of Israel, and many of its MP’s (members of Parliament) and other of its officials have been accused of rampant anti-Semitism.
Pro-Israel Democrats have chastised Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (respectively representing Detroit and Minneapolis) for their periodic outbursts against Israel and American Jews, and they organized early to challenge members of Congress like Tlaib and Omar at the ballot box, though pro-Israel critics claim that is insufficient.
Already, fissures in Labour have emerged. Labour-turned-independent candidates were met with enthusiasm in a Jewish suburb of London, and still many pro-Israel MP’s remain in Labour.
Montgomery’s leadership at el-Alamein should close the book on Tlaib’s oft-quoted boast: “There’s always kind of a calming feeling when I think it was my ancestors – Palestinians – who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence, in many ways has been wiped out…in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-Holocaust, post-tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time.”
Not only did the Arabs attempt to massacre Jews when Israel became a sovereign nation, but during World War II Jews in Palestine feared for their own Holocaust if German troops led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel broke through to the Sinai Canal and advanced onto Palestine.
“People were in a terrible panic,” wrote Tom Segev in One Palestine, Complete, a book which chronicles Britain’s 30-year control of Palestine. “Some tried to arrange refuge in monasteries, while others equipped themselves with cyanide. The (Jewish) agency feared that the Nazis, once in Palestine, would make common cause with the Arabs.
“The specter of a Nazi invasion ignited a fierce debate about survival and patriotism,” Segev wrote. “Should the Jews surrender to the Nazis and live in disgrace or should they fight and die with honor?”
In fact, the German publication Der Spiegel reported in a 2007 article that Adolf Hitler promised Muhammad Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who spent World War II in Germany, of “destruction of Jewry living in Arabia.”
Germany organized a special unit to head up the Middle East Holocaust by joining Rommel’s Afrikakorps. “It was led by SS Lt. Col. Walther Rauff, an experienced mass murderer who helped develop the mobile gassing vehicles the Germans used to murder Jewish people in their campaign in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union,”Der Spiegel reported. “Rauff and his men were empowered to ‘take executive measures against the civilian population,’ Nazi jargon for robbery, murder and enslavement.”
Montgomery’s Eighth Army overwhelmed Rommel’s forces at el-Alamein in a battle waged between Oct. 23 and Nov. 11, providing relief to Palestine’s Jews nearly 500 miles to the northeast. Brigadier Gen. Frederick Kisch, Britain’s highest-ranking Jewish officer, participated at el-Alamein as chief engineer; he was killed later when he stepped on a mine in Tunisia.
“Montgomery…won everlasting glory and the gratitude of the Jews in Palestine,” Segev wrote. “Already indebted to Monty for suppressing the Arab revolt (of 1937), the Jews were now doubly indebted to him for saving them from the Nazis. Against this background of mutual interests, military cooperation between the Yishuv and the British authorities grew even closer.”
Headed for everlasting infamy and the hostility of most Jews in England, Jeremy Corbyn is seeing cracks in the Labour Party’s operation. A handful of independent MP’s, both Jews and non-Jews, fled Labour and formed an independent group in Parliament partly because of anti-Semitism.
A new poll shows that more than half of British voters believe that Corbyn’s failure to contend with anti-Semitic concerns within Labour disqualifies him as prime minister, according to The Jewish Chronicle of London. That includes nearly one third of Labour people who voted Labour in 2017.
MP Luciana Berger of Liverpool, who quit Labour after sustaining anti-Semitic abuse, was greeted as a conquering heroine earlier this month when she and other officials and candidates visited Golders Green, a large Jewish suburb of London. A Golders Green resident identified in the Chronicle as Olivia said, “The Jewish community here feel very isolated from Labour now. I have always voted Labour but no longer feel as though I can.”
Back on this side of the pond, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of the Bronx/Queens previously pledged that more “progressive” candidates will challenge incumbents in future Democratic primaries. Though a high percentage of Jews are roughly on the same page with AOC on domestic issues, they must wonder if bashing Israel is a prerequisite for calling oneself a “progressive.”
Yet these new members of Congress must also face the voters next year, even if they represent Democrat-majority districts. Tlaib is especially vulnerable having won 31 percent of the vote in a field of six in her primary in 2018, with her closest rival taking 30 percent. Put another way, 69 percent of Detroit-area Democrats voted against Tlaib.
Perhaps Tlaib’s pattern of revisionist history will be the least of her political challenges next year.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World