A couple of impressions I took away from the experience: First, I can say without hesitation that I hope never to return to Britain. I actually don't see any point. Jews are targeted by massive anti-Semitism of both the social and physical varieties. Why would anyone Jewish want to live there?And they lost because the audience along with Levy had already made up their minds - it made no difference whether they lacked facts, Israel was illegitimate in their minds, and that was it. They had shut out any true debate.
As to visiting as an Israeli, again, I just don't see the point. The discourse is owned by anti-Israel voices. They don't make arguments to spur thought, but to end it, by appealing to people's passions.
For instance, in one particularly ugly segment, Levy made the scurrilous accusation that Israel systematically steals land from the Palestinians. Both Dayan and I demanded that he provide just one example of his charge. And the audience raged against us for our temerity at insisting that he provide substantiation for his baseless allegation. In the event, he failed to substantiate his allegation.
Hence, Britain is just not a place where Jews should be wasting their time.
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I was reading a Sherlock Holmes detective story, "A Study in Scarlet,' in which a wounded Dr. Watson, just back from the Afghan wars, is seeking lodgings that he can afford on his small military stipend:
"I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air- or as free as an income of eleven shilling and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained."
Things haven't changed much.
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