Stop this fiction...The one and only - The Jewish Chronicle

Stop this fiction Another year, another celebration of terrorism on the streets of London. It is not, of course, billed as such. But how else to describe with any accuracy a march put on by the so-called Islamic Human Rights Commission, a Khomeinist front organisation, in support of the ‘political wing’ of Hezbollah? And how else to describe the Al Quds Day marching cry of “Khaybar, Khaybar” — the war chant celebrating Mohammed’s defeat of the Jews in 628, and now the oft-repeated rallying cry of Islamist antisemites? The supposed divide between the terrorist organisation’s political and military wings is a preposterous fiction. There is simply Hezbollah, which aims at the destruction of Israel, the murder of Jews and the futherance of Iranian hegemony in the Middle East. It shames this and previous governments that they have all held to this fiction and thus allowed Hezbollah supporters to march through our capital waving a flag synonymous with Jew hate and murder. But how fitting that the most symbolic — and bravest — opposition to this year’s march was Mark Lewis’s one-man demonstration, holding up the entire march from his wheelchair for over an hour. He should not, however, have needed to be there, nor should any of the other counter demonstrators, if our government had done its job. This week the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, has let it be known that he intends to recognise reality and proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety. “Sajid is a very different beast to the Home Secretary he has just replaced,” we are told. Certainly, he has a fine record of support for the Jewish community and for Israel in its fight against terror. The omens are certainly good. But Mr Javid will forgive us if we treat a briefing from ‘sources’ with scepticism. Briefing is not acting — and until Mr Javid acts, he deserves no less opprobrium than his predecessors. This year’s Al Quds Day festival of hate must be the last. The one and only The JC has published many writers whose bylines have become part of Anglo-Jewry itself. But even in that elevated pantheon, Evelyn Rose stands apart. There can hardly be a Jewish home in the land that does not have a copy of an Evelyn Rose cookbook. Even among millennials, hers are the recipes to which we still turn. And, as Victoria Prever points out this week, her archive shows that she anticipated almost every trend we now think of as innovative. She was — and remains — unique.