Two Tribes - An Identity Problem

Two Tribes – An Identity Crisis?



There was a football match last week. Russia travelled to Israel to play a group-qualifying match in the national European championship. If Russia would have beaten Israel, who were already not in a qualifying position, then Russia were through and England would have been out of the knock out tournament to be held next year in Austria.

England needed a favour from the Israeli team. The Sun newspaper jumped to an astonishing conclusion. Israel and Russia would act in collusion for the benefit of the latter, because of the “interests” of Roman Abramavitch. For those of you who have been asleep for the last few years, Roman is the Russian oligarch who pumped about several hundred million pounds into Chelsea F.C. For those of you who miss the point of this story I should explain. The common denominator of the slur on Roman and the Israel football team is that they are money grubbing Jews. This is the kind of slur the Nazis used to employ against Jews. It is the same rubbish that informed The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. We are Jews therefore we are plotters, we are Jews, therefore we are rich, we are Jews therefore we will do anything for money.

In case you missed the slurs and innuendo there is the general disdain in which the football pundits treated the possibility of Israel being able to obtain a result from the Russians. Israel is not in the first rank of football superpowers, but then neither, based on results in tournaments, is England. Forgetting this for a moment it seems strange to the point of being stupid to ignore some salient facts. Israel has only lost 2 out of their last 18 home matches, and in their last two qualifying tournaments has only lost the odd game or so. Amongst those teams unable to beat Israel at home were England and France. So ask yourself why the normally sagacious English journalists were suddenly blind to the possibility that Israel might get a result. Why when Israel beat Russia were those same journalists, “astonished”?

When the television stations cut to the pubs where English fans were watching the Israel match with such interest we saw English men dressed as orthodox Jewish men, complete with funny hats, beards and curled ringlets toasting Israel with mock Jewish toasts. I don’t expect much better from soccer fans of any type, after all there are those that are currently argue that its OK for tens of thousands of them to shout at “The Yids” of Tottenham Hotspur and to make gassing noises. I do expect better of the television broadcasters. They seemed to think it was very funny. Imagine the howls of protest if black people or Muslims or other groups were similarly mocked.

It has become acceptable to mock Jews, to question their motives, and to de-legitimise us a group without any proof other than that we are Jews and therefore are suspect.

Who am I? I am a Jew boy and proud of it. I’m not going to claim Englishness, as, although born in this exceptional country, I cannot claim to be of the blood. I am not sure I want to claim Saxon, or Norman or Viking, Pict or Celtic forefathers. Or even a mixture. I am a Jew boy because that is how the world labels me in their secret thoughts, in those times when no one is looking or listening.

I am happy to accept being British, along with my fellow Brits from all over the world who have settled here over the millennia. What a wonderful country we all built, and now watch being dismantled by apathy and political correctness.

The Chief Rabbi was quoted as saying in a recent article that he had never encountered anti-Semitism until recently. If this is an accurate report, where has he been? I think he must mix in very polite Gentile society when not surrounded by his Jewish peers. What a pity it would be that such a wonderful person, armed with the best articulation of sound principles is so cut off from reality. He could be so much more beneficial to Jewish people in this regard if he was better informed.

I am proud to claim pure Jewish stock. Yes, for those of you fellow Jews who might be in denial, we do have our distinguishing blood types and peculiar predilection to certain illnesses that the Lord chose us for. Perhaps he could choose someone else for this good fortune? However I am reliably informed that this is a religion and not a race. I disagree, as it is highly unlikely that other religions have a blood type indication of belonging to their group. You can be a Muslim, Hindu, Christian or Buddhist and any race you like. We however, largely have the distinction of being both a religion and a group, that loosely I shall term a tribe. We are not quite a race, as we are also found in many races, but we are a discernable entity, that can legitimately be called a tribe. In the dictionary that is described as “A group of people ethnologically related and forming a community...”

My family is a microcosm of most Jewish families in the Diaspora. My father and mother were born in the UK, grandparents from the UK, Russia and Poland. Go back a further few generations and the ones from Poland on my father’s side were German Jews imported to the Polish town of Lodz to help run, manage, engineer their factories for their German owners. We have traced them back a few centuries in Germany where they were apparently clock makers. My three children were all born in the UK, but two of my three grand children are American, and one of my sons-in-law is Israeli with Jewish ancestry of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic background. Like most other Jewish people I have extended family all over the world, particularly in the States and Israel.

So what am I is a question I have had to ask many times in my life when confronted with a world that wants answers to such questions. I remember as if it were last week, well it was, the question, “who would you fight for if Israel, God forbid, had to fight Britain?” That is actually something that has happened in many of our lifetimes before the British abandoned their Palestine mandate around 60 years ago. My response is clear, against anyone else I would do my duty for this country, but against Israel I would have to be an objector. I couldn’t lift my hand against my people.

Strangely when I watch Israel compete at football I don’t find myself truly identifying with the team although I do identify with the idea of them being, partly, my team. I suppose that might be because I simply don’t look like those brown skinned, slim, wiry, black haired Middle Easterners. Strangely I cannot tell the difference between the sprinkling of Arab and majority Jewish players in the team. All of who don’t look like my fair skinned, fair haired Eastern European looking family.

I had seen the big Israel versus Russia game as an ideal opportunity for me to support both my tribes, the British and Jewish. However although I am a patriotic Brit and a fervent football fan I found myself torn. I have an affinity for Israel that transcends my baser instincts. I am hugely proud of all its many achievements, I am hugely upset when it has difficulties, inconsolable when it acts in a way I find disagreeable. Nevertheless there was no reason to assume that there was a conspiracy for Israel to let Russia win in a money fix, nor any reason to assume Israel had no chance. I am not sure if such sentiments on behalf of the British media is their natural arrogance, or their in built belief that Israel simply cannot be as good as their record indicates, or a little bit of casual anti-Semitism. How can the Jews be any good at sport? Whichever one, or most likely a mixture, I don’t like it, and it wouldn’t be accepted about any other group in our British society. It has become politically correct to be incorrect about Jews. We are “fair game”.

As I write this it is the morning of the next big game, England versus Croatia. If England win or draw England go through. Whatever Croatia does it is already through to the next round. Do you think there might be a fix, is anyone going to dare to accuse either team of a comfortable fix if they draw?

Look at what the manager of Croatia was reported as saying, , “I think that Israel trying so hard against Russia, when it had nothing to gain, restored my belief in sportsmanship. That is what we are going to do, try our best.” It’s a shame this sentiment was not widely shared by our fellow Brits.