Many of our much-loved British institutions are engaged in a concerted campaign of slow self-destruction. The institutions themselves are harming their reputations in a similar way to Gerald Ratner when, in 1991, he joked about a product in his jewellery business as “total crap”.
The BBC used to be respected the world over for its accuracy and integrity. Around the world people drew comfort from the knowledge of its veracity. Not any more. BBC News has slowly destroyed its reputation. Those looking for accurate Middle East coverage have as much trust in the BBC now as they do in Al-Jazeera. The anti-Israel derangement has spoiled the brand.
British policing used to be considered the finest in the world. At the FA Cup Final in 1923, a handful of constables and a white police horse were able to control a crowd of up to 300,000 football fans who had descended on the new Wembley Stadium. A hundred years later, “White Horse Bridge” leading to Wembley is still named after it.
But now, after years of hate marches in London at which terrorism has been lionised; after the West Midlands Police scandal, when evidence was fabricated in order to ban supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv from Birmingham; and after Essex Police allowed pro-Palestinians to target a Jewish residential area of Southend, many feel that British policing has been captured by appeasers of those who hate Israel, Jews, and this country itself. The international reputation of British policing has plummeted, as President Donald Trump keeps reminding us.
The NHS used to be the subject of envy worldwide for its medical treatment, free at the point of use. But its hospitals have been infested with antisemitism and the British Medical Association has recently voted to abandon the internationally accepted definition of antisemitism. Wes Streeting, when Health Secretary last year, said he had “no confidence” in the medical disciplinary tribunals to deal with rampant antisemitism in the NHS and said that absurd claims of “Jewish supremacy” in the NHS “undermined patient safety”.
The BBC, the police and the NHS are just three examples of British institutions which have been prepared to appease and empathise with haters to such an extent that they have harmed themselves, their brands and their own interests. This is the very definition of suicidal empathy.
Similar self-destructive behaviour can be found in Canada, Australia and elsewhere in the West. It is slowly eating away at Western civilisation.
When the pillars upholding protection for Jews are crumbled away, the roof will fall in not only on Jews but on everyone sheltering under the protection that those pillars of civilisation provided. The hatred is so extreme that the haters consume themselves with their hatred, to the detriment of everything and everyone else.
The Australian newspaper recently reported the example of an international medical conference which was scheduled to take place in Perth last year. Doctors were due to hear about the latest battle-tested techniques to treat gunshot wounds in the critical minutes after injury.
Among the speakers at this academic conference was to be the former head of the Israeli military’s medical corps, Dr Elon Glassberg. The Israeli Army has reduced mortality rates from gunshot wounds to the lowest of any army in the world and no doubt imparting that knowledge to other doctors would help treatment in other countries too.
But anti-Israel activists in Australia threatened large-scale protests outside. The medical conference was cancelled. In an orgy of self-congratulation, the Israel-haters considered this cancellation to be a stunning victory.
Unfortunately, just weeks later, Australia’s worst-ever terrorist attack, the Bondi Beach massacre, saw fifteen people shot dead, including a ten-year-old girl, in an atrocity later claimed by Islamic State. Forty other people sustained gunshot wounds, including two Sydney police officers. But the opportunity to teach new techniques to Australian doctors had been lost.
Other examples of self-harming behaviour here in the UK are legion. In September last year, the Royal College of Defence Studies in London barred Israeli citizens from enroling. The College has long accepted students from countries with appalling human rights records, such as Nigeria, Turkey, Zimbabwe, China, Pakistan and Myanmar. Many of those governments are implicated in repression, atrocities, or support for terrorism – but only Israel has been subject to blanket exclusion.
Israel only used to send a small number of senior officers to the College; they presumably are now sent to West Point Military Academy in the US or to other options. But the Royal College of Defence Studies was accused of discrimination, and its reputation around the world will have been affected.
There is an ancient mythological serpent that is always depicted eating itself, called “Ouroboros”. It’s a symbol as old as recorded history and is found depicted in the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Western governments are today allowing their own societies to consume themselves with hatred to the point of self-destruction. The UK, France, Australia and Canada are led today by political minnows who follow rather than lead.
The West must urgently get a grip. Even Arab countries like the UAE are sounding the alarm about our failure to stop the rot – they refuse to support their youngsters studying at universities in the UK for fear of rampant radicalisation. Egypt and other countries in the region have banned the Muslim Brotherhood, whilst the UK allows it to flourish.
If we don’t stop the haters consuming our once-respected institutions, it will not just be the Jewish community that suffers – it will be all of us.
Sir Michael Ellis KC is a Conservative politician and barrister who served as Attorney General in 2021 and 2022
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