Alan Berkley

Father of three. Scot in London, working in the City. Interests: Israel, Politics, Sport, General Chatter. All my own views

[Alan Berkley @AlanBerkley]

@bookingcom my flights have been cancelled by the airline but the chat function on your website won't help me (it literally closes the chat) because it's more than 5 days until my flight would have flown. This isn't on. How can i get my refund please.

[David Wolfson @DXW_KC]

I disagree with Lord Hermer KC, the Attorney General. I don’t accept that international law requires our Prime Minister to deliver a pusillanimous statement setting out the UK’s position whose first point is “We did not participate”.

I’ve set out the gist of my approach below. ⬇️

The Prime Minister has refused publicly to support the US and Israel strikes, and also refuses to allow the US to use UK bases, because of international law advice he has reportedly received from Lord Hermer.

International law ought to provide a mechanism to restrain and, if necessary, end despotic and tyrannical regimes such as that in Iran. If the doctrines of international law prove unable to restrain Iranian terrorism and mass murder, and tie the hands of democracies while forcing them to stand and watch Iranian atrocities, international law will have failed. It will have become a fundamentally immoral system of law, and one which is worse than worthless in the modern world.

To be clear: I don’t believe that it is. I think international law is important, and both can and should provide a just legal order. I do, however, have serious questions as to the moral attitudes of some of its expositors; too many international lawyers serenely promote an analysis which ultimately protects tyrants.

Seven points, and some questions:

1 The inherent right to use force in the face of an imminent attack from a hostile nation which is responsible for a pattern of hostile actions exists for good reason: a country cannot be expected to remain idle and just wait for the next attack.

2 Iran has repeatedly threatened to attack the UK’s bases and personnel. Those threats come in the context of persistent Iranian attempts to launch attacks on UK soil, too; the Director General of MI5 has stated, and the PM confirmed last night, that the UK has responded to tens of Iranian-backed plots, presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents. There is also a constant barrage of cyberattacks; while not all cyberattacks are armed attacks in sense of Article 51 of the UN Charter, some may be, and all confirm not just hostile intent but action pursuant to such intent.

3 The UK’s long-standing allies, the US and Israel, were right to consider that they faced further attacks prior to their recent military action, given that (i) Iran has previously attacked both states directly and also through its many proxies; (ii) Iran has repeatedly stated its intent to destroy Israel; (iii) Iran was assessed to be on the brink of acquiring a nuclear capability with uranium enrichment at 60% (which can only be for military use); and (iv) Iran already possessed – as demonstrated by its recent attacks – a sophisticated and effective long-range delivery capability which Israel cannot fully neutralise with defensive weapons.

4 The acquisition of a nuclear capability by Iran represents a genocidal risk for Israel and its people. Iran’s repeatedly stated aim is to wipe the State of Israel, and its inhabitants, off the face of the earth. The slogan of the proxies through which Iran has often attacked Israel is: “God is greater, death to America, death to Israel, curse to the Jews, victory to Islam”. In these circumstances, whether they are characterised as part of an ongoing armed conflict with Iran or as a new use of force based on self-defence, Israel’s actions are justifiable.

5 The UK (and also the US) is permitted under international law to use force to aid another state which is acting in self-defence. Moreover, the UK is under an obligation in international law is to prevent genocide, not just to stop it: stopping an on-going genocide is required, but it necessarily means that action was taken too late.

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[Alan Berkley @AlanBerkley]

@virginmedia I can't sign into my VM Connect app to control my hub. I end up in a circular push of it sending me to the website and having to verify my email but can't progress from there. Please help

[David Collier @mishtal]

Breaking: @bbcnews have become the gold standard for fake news in support of Hamas.

Watch the White House @PressSec, Karoline Leavitt single out the BBC for ridicule because of its fake news (Hamas propaganda) reporting. Oh dear me. BBC are Hamas shills.

[Alan Berkley @AlanBerkley]

@YourCFOGuy Send

[Konstantin Kisin @KonstantinKisin]

Having listened to the arguments of both sides over the last year, I'm no longer on the fence about Israel's war. Here is why:

[Hillel Fuld @HilzFuld]

An incredible letter written by a non-Jewish Scottish professor to his students who voted to boycott Israel

It's a response from Dr. Denis MacEoin to the motion put forward by The Edinburgh Student's Association to boycott all things Israeli, in which they claim Israel is under an apartheid regime.

Denis is an expert in Middle Eastern affairs and was a senior editor of the Middle East Quarterly. Here's his letter to the students.

TO: The Committee Edinburgh University Student Association.

May I be permitted to say a few words to members of the EUSA? I am an Edinburgh graduate (MA 1975) who studied Persian, Arabic and Islamic History in Buccleuch Place under William Montgomery Watt and Laurence Elwell Sutton, two of Britain 's great Middle East experts in their day. I later went on to do a PhD at Cambridge and to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University . Naturally, I am the author of several books and hundreds of articles in this field. I say all that to show that I am well informed in Middle Eastern affairs and that, for that reason, I am shocked and disheartened by the EUSA motion and vote.

I am shocked for a simple reason: there is not and has never been a system of apartheid in Israel .

That is not my opinion, that is fact that can be tested against reality by any Edinburgh student, should he or she choose to visit Israel to see for themselves. Let me spell this out, since I have the impression that those members of EUSA who voted for this motion are absolutely clueless in matters concerning Israel, and that they are, in all likelihood, the victims of extremely biased propaganda coming from the anti-Israel lobby.

Being anti-Israel is not in itself objectionable. But I'm not talking about ordinary criticism of Israel . I'm speaking of a hatred that
permits itself no boundaries in the lies and myths it pours out. Thus, Israel is repeatedly referred to as a "Nazi" state. In what sense is
this true, even as a metaphor? Where are the Israeli concentration camps? The einzatsgruppen? The SS? The Nuremberg Laws? The Final Solution? None of these things nor anything remotely resembling them exists in Israel , precisely because the Jews, more than anyone on earth, understand what Nazism stood for.

It is claimed that there has been an Israeli Holocaust in Gaza (or elsewhere). Where? When? No honest historian would treat that claim with anything but the contempt it deserves. But calling Jews Nazis and saying they have committed a Holocaust is as basic a way to subvert historical fact as anything I can think of.

Likewise apartheid. For apartheid to exist, there would have to be a situation that closely resembled how things were in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Unfortunately for those who believe this, a weekend in any part of Israel would be enough to show how ridiculous the claim is.

That a body of university students actually fell for this and voted on it is a sad comment on the state of modern education. The most obvious focus for apartheid would be the country's 20% Arab population. Under Israeli law, Arab Israelis have exactly the same rights as Jews or anyone else; Muslims have the same rights as Jews or Christians; Baha'is, severely persecuted in Iran, flourish in Israel, where they have their world center; Ahmadi Muslims, severely persecuted in Pakistan and elsewhere, are kept safe by Israel; the holy places of all religions are protected under a specific Israeli law. Arabs form 20% of the university population (an exact echo of their percentage in the general population).

In Iran , the Bahai's (the largest religious minority) are forbidden to study in any university or to run their own universities: why
aren't your members boycotting Iran ? Arabs in Israel can go anywhere they want, unlike blacks in apartheid South Africa . They use public transport, they eat in restaurants, they go to swimming pools, they use libraries, they go to cinemas alongside Jews - something no blacks were able to do in South Africa .

Israeli hospitals not only treat Jews and Arabs, they also treat Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank.

On the same wards, in the same operating theatres.

In Israel , women have the same rights as men: there is no gender apartheid.

Gay men and women face no restrictions, and Palestinian gays often escape into Israel, knowing they may be killed at home.

It seems bizarre to me that LGBT groups call for a boycott of Israel and say nothing about countries like Iran , where gay men are hanged or stoned to death. That illustrates a mindset that beggars belief.

Intelligent students thinking it's better to be silent about regimes that kill gay people, but good to condemn the only country in the
Middle East that rescues and protects gay people. Is that supposed to be a sick joke?

University is supposed to be about learning to use your brain, to think rationally, to examine evidence, to reach conclusions based on solid evidence, to compare sources, to weigh up one view against one or more others. If the best Edinburgh can now produce are students who have no idea how to do any of these things, then the future is bleak.

I do not object to well-documented criticism of Israel . I do object when supposedly intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific in their treatment of their populations. We are going through the biggest upheaval in the Middle East since the 7th and 8th centuries, and it's clear that Arabs and Iranians are rebelling against terrifying regimes that fight back by killing their own citizens.

Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, do not rebel (though they are free to protest). Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations and call for no boycotts against Libya , Bahrain , Saudi Arabia , Yemen , and Iran . They prefer to make false accusations against one of the world's freest countries, the only country in the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the Middle East that gives refuge to gay men and women, the only country in the Middle East that
protects the Bahai's.... Need I go on?

The imbalance is perceptible, and it sheds no credit on anyone who voted for this boycott. I ask you to show some common sense. Get information from the Israeli embassy. Ask for some speakers. Listen to more than one side.

Do not make your minds up until you have given a fair hearing to both parties. You have a duty to your students, and
that is to protect them from one-sided argument.

They are not at university to be propagandized. And they are certainly not there to be tricked into anti-Semitism by punishing one country among all the countries of the world, which happens to be the only Jewish state. If there had been a single Jewish state in the 1930's (which, sadly, there was not), don't you think Adolf Hitler would have decided to boycott it?

Your generation has a duty to ensure that the perennial racism of anti-Semitism never sets down roots among you. Today, however, there are clear signs that it has done so and is putting down more. You have a chance to avert a very great evil, simply by using reason and a sense of fair play. Please tell me that this makes sense. I have given you some of the evidence.

It's up to you to find out more.

Yours sincerely,

Denis MacEoin

[Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 @MarinaMedvin]

I didn’t know this. Wow.

Watch—

[Alan Berkley @AlanBerkley]

@metpoliceuk @RishiSunak @JamesCleverly
How can the police stand there and make no arrests?
And how can Jews feel safe knowing that the Met Police will not protect them?

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

British Jew attacked with antisemitic slurs by a German-speaking Muslim migrant

Soon, the mob of around 15 people starts egging each other on to beat up the Jewish man

The British police are present but make now arrests as usual

Via @israel_advocacy

[Assita Kanko MEP @Assita_Kanko]

I am appalled by the depravity within UNRWA. Yesterday I listened to a mother in Geneva. Her son was kidnapped lifeless from the music festival to Gaza. By an UNRWA employee. In an UNRWA jeep. It can all be seen on video. Do we want to pay for this? No!

Unlike the High Representative and the Belgian Presidency of the Council, I think that it is legitimate for EU member states to suspend their funding to UNRWA pending the conclusion of the investigations.

A thorough vetting of UNRWA could eventually lead to its replacement by UNHCR and other credible UN agencies that are doing a good job.

We call for full transparency and fraud control on EU funding for UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority.

Minimum respect for taxpayers. This is really not too much to ask.

I am also appalled that Hamas’ leaders have accumulated huge wealth at the expense of ordinary Palestinians and have been living a life of luxury abroad,
while ordinary Palestinians have been living in poverty due to their leaders’ corruption and are suffering as a result of the consequences of their leaders’ actions.

#Eplenary #UNRWA

[Alan Berkley @AlanBerkley]

@RadioSmithy i'm bringing my son to Ibrox from London to see the Killie game on 2nd Jan. It'll be his first Gers game and was wondering if it's possible to arrange a half-time shout out. Do you know how i could do this? Thanks and happy X-mas.

[Yasmine Mohammed 🦋 ياسمين محمد @YasMohammedxx]

.@daliaziada is Director of a Middle East think tank and author of a book on Islamists. Listen to her explain to you the core of this Israel vs Hamas war and how it is about something much bigger than a land claim-and how you, in the west, are involved.https://t.co/cBi3GmOMAb

[Alan Berkley @AlanBerkley]

@KenwoodLights we have tickets for 6pm tonight but have heard that you're closed at the moment. Will we get in at 6?

[Alan Berkley @AlanBerkley]

@paullewismoney The post really frustrates me. Those earning >£112.5k may well be in the top 1% of earners but that doesn't make them in the 1% wealthiest. Journalists and politicians need to stop equating earning and wealth (and start considering properly taxing both).

[Alan Berkley @AlanBerkley]

Over 25% of the parliamentary @LabourParty together with #Hamas #Iran #Hezbollah are calling for a ceasefire in #IsraelHamasWar
Says it all.
@Keir_Starmer looks like you've still got a lot to sort out (or maybe just kick out)

[Alan Berkley @AlanBerkley]

@DPJHodges It would be a significant change to have someone who is competent, statesman-like and moderate

[Chris Rose @ArchRose90]

“If you decided to go on some kind of march, in week one you discovered that you had the bnp along your side for instance, calling for the murder of all black people, would you wonder if you should go on week two? And would you not drop out by week three?” - @DouglasKMurray 🔥

[Avi Mayer אבי מאיר @AviMayer]

Everyone should watch this. Now.

Thank you, @DonnyDeutsch.

[Alan Berkley @AlanBerkley]

Couldn't be put any better.

[Michal/Michele -מיכל✡️ 🟦 @MichalSabra]

Every single word. 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱

[Alan Berkley @AlanBerkley]

hits the nail on the head. This is what you are saying if you chant, or condone the chant, of #FromTheRiverToTheSea
#HamasTerrorists
#AmYisraelChai

[Gary Sinyor @garysinyor]

A Great British Trait - Laugh in the Face of Stupidity