A complaint often levied against anti-Zionists by defenders of Israel is that we are obsessed with Israel / Palestine.

Tamil refugees: sheltering from the horror of Sri Lanka's civil war

Look at Darfur – the critics say. What about the Congo? How about Sri Lanka? Why do anti-Zionists always carry on about Israel?

At that point, they often opine that anti-Zionists are obsessed with Israel because we have a darker agenda. ‘Excessive’ or ‘disproportionate’ concern for Palestinian human rights is sometimes cited as an indicator of ‘anti-Semitism’. Who likes to be accused of that?

Years ago, I found this line of argument persuasive. But no more. There are a number of reasons why, over time, I’ve grown a thicker integument which provides a measure of protection against this unpleasant accusation. Here’s a couple of them…

Imagine I discovered that the Sri Lankans, Congolese or Sudanese were interfering in the internal affairs of Israel/Palestine – funding one or more of the warring parties, selling them arms and exerting a mischievous, war-mongering influence on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

If the evidence was strong, it might well change my view about the importance of these regional conflicts. I might form the view that resolving conflicts in Sri Lanka, the Congo or Sudan is not just a matter of direct interest to the people in those regions; it would also have much broader significance for other regions in the world.

In addition, if I discovered that the Singhalese (or Congolese, or Sudanese) Lobbies in Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Canberra and Ottawa had a vice-like grip on the foreign policy of those powerful nations, I’d be even more concerned. In that case, these countries would be truly global in significance; resolving conflicts within them would be a crucial global priority.

Yet there’s no evidence of the former – and no evidence of the latter either. None of these conflict-ridden countries – Sri Lanka, the Congo or the Sudan – interferes in far flung parts of the world. None of them has significant clout in the major capital cities of the most heavily armed nations on earth. The conflicts in those regions are tragic and should be resolved, peacefully and promptly. The world must co-operate to help achieve this. But they are symptoms, not causes, of global society off the rails.

The State of Israel, by contrast, imposes its interests on the world in such as a way that resolving The Israel Problem is now indubitably at the centre of global politics. If we want a peaceful world, there must be peace with justice in the Holy Land.  That fractured whole must be re-healed.

The power of the Israel Lobby – in the USA and elsewhere – is now well-known. It’s become a fairly obvious cabal.  Over the last decade, thanks to a relatively small number of courageous scholars and public figures, discussion about ‘The Lobby’ has moved out of the back corridors. It’s even, on occasion, discussed openly in the western media. Hard to completely overlook an elephant in the living room…

Less well-known is the Jewish State’s malevolent interference in other parts of the world – far, far from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Victor Ostrovsky: ex-Mossad agent and whistleblower

In the late 1980s, a disillusioned Mossad operative called Victor Ostrovsky fled Israel to return to his native Canada. He took extraordinary precautions to arrange for publication of his memoirs. Despite some desperate attempts to suppress publication, the wily Ostrovsky defeated them: St Martin’s Press published By Way of Deception, co-authored by Victor Ostrovsky and Canadian journalist Claire Hoy, in 1990. A few years later, Ostrovsky published a sequel: The Other Side of Deception. Both books are compelling reads. The picture they paint – of brutal, cynical and deceptive Israeli spy agencies that contemptuously treat the world as their oyster –  is frightening indeed.

The gruesome war between the Tamil Tigers and Sri Lankan Government is topical at present. It appears that the Tigers have been finally vanquished, after many decades. The resulting humanitarian crisis is appalling.

Here are a few extracts from By Way of Deception that concern Ostrovsky’s experiences in the 1980s while working as a trainee Mossad agent. They have some relevance to the agony of Sri Lanka today.

I don’t have the book any more, but Peter Meyers has reproduced some of the text on his website, which I’ve used as my source in this instance (emphasis added).

Some Excerpts From ‘By Way of Deception’

by Victor Ostrovsky & Claire Hoy, St Martin’s Press, New York 1990.

{p. 130} Sympathy for the Tamils runs high in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where 40 million Tamils live. Many Sri Lankan Tamils, escaping the bloodshed, have sought refuge there, and the Sri Lankan government has accused Indian officials of arming and training the Tamils. They should be accusing the Mossad.

The Tamils were training at the commando naval base, learning penetration techniques, mining landings, communications, and how to sabotage ships similar to the Devora. There were about 28 men in each group, so it was decided that Yosy should take the Tamils to Haifa that night while I took the Sinhalese to Tel Aviv, thus avoiding any chance encounters.

The real problem started about two weeks into the courses, when both the Tamils and Sinhalese – unknown to each other, of course – were training at Kfar Sirkin. It is a fairly large base, but even so, on one occasion the two groups passed within a few yards of each other while they were out jogging. After their basic training routine at Kfar Sirkin, the Sinhalese were taken to the naval base to be taught essentially how to deal with all the techniques the Israelis had just taught the Tamils. It was pretty hectic. We had to dream up punishments or night training exercises just to keep them busy, so that both groups wouldn’t be in Tel Aviv at the same time. The actions of this one man (Amy) could have jeopardized the political situation in Israel if these groups had met. I’m sure Peres wouldn’t have slept at night if he’d known this was going on. But, of course, he didn’t know.

When the three weeks were just about up and the Sinhalese were preparing to go to Atlit, the top-secret naval commando base, Amy told me he wouldn’t be going with them. The Sayret Matcal would take over their training. This was the top intelligence reconnaissance group, the one that carried out the famous Entebbe raid. (The naval commandos are the equivalent of the American Seals.)

“Look, we have a problem,” said Amy. “We have a group of 27 SWAT team guys from India coming in.”

{p. 131} “My God,” I said “What is this? We’ve got Sinhalese, Tamils, and now Indians. Who’s next?” …

At the same time, I was meeting with a Taiwanese air-force general named Key, the representative of their intelligence community in Israel. He worked out of the Japanese embassy, and he wanted to buy weapons. I was told to show him around, but not to sell to him, since the Taiwanese would replicate in two days anything they bought, and end up competing with Israel on the market.

{p. 221} That was why Israel wanted to have their own to test, but they couldn’t openly buy it from the French. France had an embargo on selling weapons to Israel. A lot of countries still do, because they know that the moment Israel has certain weapons, it will copy them.

{p. 222} And just to show how nondiscriminatory the Mossad is, it trained both sides in the bloody ongoing civil unrest in Sri Lanka: the Tamils and the Sinhalese, as well as the Indians who were sent in to restore order.