A Zionist At The Helm

by Jafar M Ramini

This is the morning after the night before. This is the reality check. This is the most ominous thing that could happen to us Palestinians at this stage of our struggle against occupation and persecution. Britain has its new Prime Minister.

Who is Boris Johnson? The shambolic, disheveled, stuttering Boris Johnson we all know is but an act. it is a put up job to hide the real ambitious, narcissist and vain man who will not stop at anything, no matter what it is, to achieve his goal. Witness what Martin Hammond, his house-master at Eton wrote to Boris’s father in 1982 while the boy Johnson was under his care.

“Boris really has adopted a disgracefully cavalier attitude to his classical studies . . . Boris sometimes seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility (and surprised at the same time that he was not appointed Captain of the School for next half): I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else.”

So this is our new Prime Minister. He has a mixed heritage. He had a Turkish Muslim great grandfather on his father’s side and a Lithuanian Jewish Rabbi great grandfather on his mother’s side. He was born in New York, brought up in England, educated at Eton and finished off at Oxford via a must-do for aspiring Zionists, a spell at a Kibbutz. He was in Occupied Palestine in 1984 where he acquired his Zionist education and credentials.

“I am a passionate Zionist. I am a supporter of Israel. I believe in its existence. I’ve been on a kibbutz for heaven’s sake.” speaking on LBC radio, July 23 2019.

He is known for his strong views about the right of Israel to exist. Speaking in the House of Commons on the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, Johnson said in 2017: “A century after those words were written, I believe that the Balfour Declaration paved the way for the birth of a great nation. The State of Israel has prevailed over every obstacle, from the harshness of nature to the visceral hostility of its enemies, to become a free society with a thriving and innovative economy and the same essential values that we in Britain hold dear.

He never stopped to demonstrate his passion for Zionism and Israel. He does not shy away from ridiculing any supporters of Palestinian rights, specially the BDS movement. He has continuously criticised calls for a boycott of Israeli goods, describing the campaign as “completely crazy” and promoted by a “few lefty academics in corduroy jackets pursuing a cause”.

Welcome to the new Britain. Let’s hope we survive it.

Jafar M Ramini is a Palestinian writer and political analyst, based in London, presently in Perth, Western Australia. He was born in Jenin in 1943 and was five years old when he and his family had to flee the terror of the Urgun and Stern gangs. Justice for the people of Palestine is a life-long commitment.