Britain, Beware of the Trojan Horse - editorial

20 Elul 5767, 03 September 07 10:14

by Walter Bingham

(IsraelNN.com) Many a fake doctor has brought about the death of a patient. But one does not have to be a member of the medical profession to fraudulently pretend to have a remedy for one or another shortcoming in a particular body. The body politic has always had, and will have, false messiahs, men, and lately also women, who profess to have the answer to a nation's, or even the world's, ills.

In the United Kingdom, such incidents are not rare. We even find them in our Trades Union, where a few misguided left-wing activists are trying to poison and brainwash the large majority of working men and women into believing that the scourge of Muslim extremism and terrorism can be eradicated by solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that, if yet another Arab state is brought into existence, then the Islamic steamroller will run out of steam.

Nothing is further from the truth. But the National Union of Journalists, the Transport and General Workers Union and the University and College Union in Britain believe that by a campaign to boycott Israel and goods produced there will bring about change in the Middle East; that Israel will be isolated, considered a pariah state and suffer economically, as was the case in South Africa. Interestingly, their utterances on Zimbabwe - where, as a result of the dispossession of the white farmers, the country is now on the verge of total economic collapse - pale into insignificance compared with their condemnation of Israel, which is among the technologically most advanced nations in the world, and a leader in IT technology, competing with Silicon Valley.

If successful, these boycotts would be nothing but a Trojan Horse that would bring with them unimaginable damage to Britain's economy (and also the Health Service). Let's consider just some of the consequences.

Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to an astounding number of advances in almost every direction (WorldNetDaily contributed to the next four paragraphs).

You would have to throw away most of your laptops, PC's and mobile phones, because Intel's new multi-core processor was completely developed at facilities in Israel. And our ubiquitous mobile phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its largest development centre in that little land. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology was also pioneered in Israel.

Bill Gates calls Israel "a major player in the high-tech world"; most of Windows NT operating system was developed by Microsoft-Israel; the Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel; both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the U.S. in Israel; and, with more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of high-tech companies in the world outside Silicon Valley.

Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the US, over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25 percent of its workforce employed in technical professions, Israel occupies first place in this category, as well.

In the USA, AirTrain JFK - the 8.1-mile light rail labyrinth that connects JFK Airport to New York City's mass transit - is protected by the Israeli-developed Nextiva surveillance system. Not to speak of Israel's expertise in anti-terrorist security, sought after everywhere.

In the medical field, Israeli researchers have:

• Discovered the molecular trigger that causes psoriasis.
• Developed the Ex-Press shunt to provide relief for glaucoma sufferers.
• Unveiled a blood test that diagnoses heart attacks - by telephone!
• Found a combination of electrical stimulation and chemotherapy that makes cancerous metastases disappear - and developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.
• Designed the first flight system to protect passenger and freighter aircraft against missile attack.
• Developed the first ingestible video camera - so small it fits inside a pill - used to view the small intestine from the inside, enabling doctors to diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.
• Perfected a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with congestive heart failure, synchronizing the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

Of course, those UK union's boycott calls are not only an anti-Israel campaign, but, by their very nature, are anti-Semitic. The much-respected, late Ann Landers, who for 45 years wrote a syndicated column in many newspapers across America, once reminded her readers that it's a free world and you don't have to like Jews if you don't want to, but if you are going to be an anti-Semite, you should be consistent and turn your back on the medical advances that Jews have made possible. So, go ahead and boycott all medicines that were researched and developed by Jews. Let me just list a few:

• The vaccine for hepatitis, discovered by Baruch Bloomberg;
• The Wasserman test for syphilis, developed by August von Wasserman, and the first effective drug to fight that decease, developed by Paul Ehrlich;
• Bela Schick developed the first diagnostic test for diphtheria;
• Insulin would not have been discovered if Oskar Minskowski had not demonstrated the link between diabetes and the pancreas;
• It was Burril Crohn who identified the decease that bears his name;
• Alfred Hess discovered that vitamin C could cure scurvy;
• Casimir Funk was the first to use vitamin B to treat beriberi, an inflammation of the nerves that can cause heart failure; and
• Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine, and later, Albert Sabin perfected the oral version.

Humanitarianism requires us to offer these gifts to all peoples of the world, regardless of race, colour or creed. Anti-Semites who want to boycott these gifts can go ahead and turn them down, but I suspect that when it comes to their own health and survival, their principles fly out the window.

So, what's the point of all this?

Simply that the very idea of eradicating or even displacing Israel from its historic home is suicidal to the rest of the world, not just her Arab neighbours.

US trade unions including the American Postal Workers and Teamsters have attacked their British counterparts for planning to boycott Israel. In a strongly worded statement signed by over 20 representatives from trade unions, it said: "Rather than divestment from Israel, we believe that investment of time, energy and material aid is the best means to alleviate the ongoing suffering of Palestinians and Israelis." They further slammed plans for any academic boycott, stating: "Rather than limiting interactions with Israeli educators, academics and educational institutions, we see the importance of maximizing, rather than proscribing, the free flow of ideas and academic interaction between peoples, cultures, religions and countries."

Now, stop just for a second and imagine a world today that never knew Israel. And then go further and imagine what our world would be like if Israel's enemies held sway. Would you rather live in an Iran, Iraq, Syria or Hamastan, or in an Israel, the only democratic state in the Middle East?

Who needs Israel? Let's be honest. We all do.

Walter Bingham is a radio show host on Israel National Radio.com.