Zealots who must be saved

A.n. Wilson12 April 2012

The building of a huge fence to protect Israel from the Palestinian terrorists is one of the most extraordinary acts by the government of Ariel Sharon. In the course of his career, he has been loud in his advocacy of settlements by recent Jewish immigrants on land which the United Nations decrees to be outside the state of Israel. By the policy of settlements, he has argued, it will be impossible for the Arabs to reclaim this territory without mass murder. There can then be an all-out war which, with American money, Sharon can win. That is the scenario.

By building this fence, Sharon has in effect imprisoned these Jewish people in the West Bank. Like the Boers in South Africa and the Ulster Protestants, they are no ordinary incomers. Clutching the Scriptures to their breasts, they believe that they have the Almighty on their side.

Many, perhaps most, of them believe that they are quite literally enacting the Messianic prophecies which herald the end of Time. Thousands of American evangelical Christians share this reading of the Scriptures, which is why they, with money and political wheeler-dealing in the American Congress, support these religious nuts.

In this column, I have often put in a word for the Palestinian cause. Now I wish that I had words to speak up for the plight of these Jewish fanatics, stuck in scrublands around Hebron and other places known to most of us only from the maps at the back of our school Bibles. A crisis of unimaginable horror is being deliberately engineered for them by Sharon's government. Only by saving their lives can we save the peace. Could we not, for once, hope that there is some virtue in having a religious, pro-American Prime Minister? Should not Mr Blair even now be doing everything he can to make the Israelis take down that fence? If they do not do so, it is not difficult to see that the day will come when those religious Jews who are stuck on the wrong side of it will be massacred. Of course, by any standards of common sense or international law, they should not be there. But in the meantime, these dogged families, with their many children, are sitting targets.

That's no way to treat a lady

One wonders why all these women queue up to be insulted - for that is what having your portrait painted by Freud amounts to. Had he painted her nude, Rubens would have made Sue Tilley into a voluptuous Venus pursuing some Adonis around his studio, or if he had semi-clothed her, he would have made her look like the Queen of Sheba getting ready for a night of passion with Solomon. Rembrandt would have been merciless to her thighs, but he would have shown what a nice, sensitive face she had. Freud makes her look like something on a butcher's slab. The only person whose portrait by Freud was more beautiful than real life was the late political fixer Arnold Goodman. Freud's portrait of Lord Goodmanzee in his pyjamas showed that even the darkened imagination of this supremely pessimistic artist could not quite bear to record what Goodman looked like in "real life".

Just look at me in my great big car

Princess Margaret left her Rolls to her son and he has perfectly sensibly sold it for £20,000. A "source close to the Royal Family" said: "There is considerable surprise that such a family heirloom has been sold off." Why? Does this "source" really believe that a young man like Lord Linley wants to swan around London in such a ridiculous car? Where would he park it, and what would happen to it when he did? I hope the new Archbishop of Canterbury will imitate his predecessor Michael Ramsey, who (non-driver he) had a chauffeurdriven Morris Minor. He used to sit on the back seat holding hands with his wife.

Let killer Martin take his chances

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