The crucifixion of William of Norwich depicted on a rood screen in Holy Trinity church, Loddon, Norfolk (picture from Wikipedia)
In England in 1144 Jews of Norwich were accused of ritual murder after a boy, William of Norwich, was found dead with stab wounds in the woods. William’s hagiographer, Thomas of Monmouth, claimed that every year there is an international council of Jews at which they choose the country in which a child will be killed during Easter, because, he claimed, of a Jewish prophecy that states that the killing of a Christian child each year will ensure that the Jews will be restored to the Holy Land. In 1144 England was chosen, and the leaders of the Jewish community delegated the Jews of Norwich to perform the killing. They then abducted and crucified William.[18] The legend was turned into a cult, with William acquiring the status of martyr and pilgrims bringing offerings to the local church.[19]
Mr Netanyahu took a noticeably hard-line on Iran on Monday at a ceremony ushering in General Gadi Eisenkot as the new army chief-of-staff, in place of the outgoing Benny Gantz, who is retiring.
“I promise you Gadi – you will not have a single day of grace,” he said. “The Middle East is disintegrating. States are collapsing. An empire is charging into this vacuum – Iran. It aspires to acquire nuclear weapons. It is trying to encircle us with four murderous armies.
“It vows openly to destroy the state of Israel in one way or another. We will require every tool, every person, because there’s no mercy for the weak in the Middle East. Only the strong ones survive.”
We Trotskyists on 4international were openly critical of Netanyahu in the past in particular of his allowing Jihadist scum of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to hit Sderot in Israel with rockets over a period of not weeks but many years. That was our criticism from the Trotskyist and Patriotic pro-Jewish side of a leadership which sadly too often fails the Jews.
BUT…The decision of Netanyahu to speak to the US Congress on March 3 2015 is different and very different. Completely different. To the nth degree of difference!
In this case we urge Netanyahu to do just this – to go to America and to explain to members of Congress (and through them to the great American people including American working class people) what is the GREAT DANGER OF IRAN and the great danger of a NUCLEAR ARMED Iran. First to Jews and Israel…Second to the whole of civilization.
This position of ours is so unusual on the present day “left” that we need to give a little note of explanation. We cannot do this fully here as books would need to be written to thoroughly explain but some will and can understand … just as the history of Israel has been lied and distorted so has the history of Trotskyism been lied and distorted. We will of course come back to this.
We will be covering this visit closely over the next 2 weeks and I wish to here reaffirm the words of Netanyahu as reproduced above by The Telegraph
The Middle East is disintegrating. States are collapsing. An empire is charging into this vacuum – Iran.
This will be the central content of our articles
4international 