Gerald Steinberg had the prescience to reject a speaking invitation to this "debate". As he describes at the end of the following podcast, he would not willingly offer himself up to be publicly slaughtered in this modern version of a Roman bloodsport: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3983El1ZxbR6iVFbJcfSEZ?si=Y5gQkweHTMKHeWteQb9gLA
I remember these vignettes from the article you wrote on this topic well, Daniel! This was a great prologue to your upcoming book, Daniel! Great Britain is a remarkable country and one of Europe's three regional powers. But the Union Jack has seen better days. This is probably the most difficult time in British history since the Second World War. A bad economy, high unemployment, sky high inflation, wages are low, mass immigration is causing chaos, antisemitism and Islamophobia are on the rise, the British military is woefully underfunded, and the British government has not done a good job standing with Israel and has been trying to play both sides. The disaster that was the Oxford Debate on the Gaza War was the perfect encapsulation of Britian's national decline. The British values of civility, politeness, attentive listening, open-mindedness, no name calling, tolerance, and mutual respect have simply gone out the window. The judges at Oxford debates in the past were impartial. The judges at this debate were Pro-Palestinian from the very beginning. The outcome for them was never in doubt. The hall was packed with Jihadist Brownshirts and radical leftists who yelled at and jeered at, the Pro-Israel side. Yoseph Haddad was outright physically removed from the debate hall. Such a spectacle would never have happened at the Oxford Debate Society in your day! Things have got to change in Britain! If Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Duke of Wellington, "Chinese" Charles Gordon, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Henry Morgan, King George III, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Alfred the Great, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden, Margaret Thatcher, Learie Constantine, General Bernard Montgomery, William Gladstone, and Benjamin Disraeli were alive today they'd be shocked at the state Britain has fallen into and are no doubt rolling over in their graves right at this very moment!
Totally agree with your sentiments Noah. I think unemployment is actually ok but your general point holds. Their needs to be a return to genuine British values.
Britishness and British institutions have never been welcoming spaces for Jews. Antisemitism in the UK runs right through the core of its twee and brutish soul. On the surface it's 100 acre woods with owl and Rabbit politely debating in Christopher Robin's garden, but the reality was that the Jewish voice was previously merely tolerated, not embraced. You see anything that challenges the innate built in notion of British superiority, that the Brits hold about themselves and was fed and watered at the fountain of colonialism, is something the Brits attack. Jewish intellectual endeavor, our ethno-religion and our excellence threatened this once great notion of theirs. Nothing has changed, the mask has merely dropped.
"Personal politics didn’t affect personal behaviour."
Utterly shocked by watching the Oxford Debate from November 2024. An utter l disgrace to - ancient 🤔 - British values for debate and dialogue.
As a young teen in the 80's, my best friends were Brits. They've learned me some very important values. Grateful for that.
Thanks for the support Ciska!
Gerald Steinberg had the prescience to reject a speaking invitation to this "debate". As he describes at the end of the following podcast, he would not willingly offer himself up to be publicly slaughtered in this modern version of a Roman bloodsport: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3983El1ZxbR6iVFbJcfSEZ?si=Y5gQkweHTMKHeWteQb9gLA
The Disputation of Barcelona all over again...
I remember these vignettes from the article you wrote on this topic well, Daniel! This was a great prologue to your upcoming book, Daniel! Great Britain is a remarkable country and one of Europe's three regional powers. But the Union Jack has seen better days. This is probably the most difficult time in British history since the Second World War. A bad economy, high unemployment, sky high inflation, wages are low, mass immigration is causing chaos, antisemitism and Islamophobia are on the rise, the British military is woefully underfunded, and the British government has not done a good job standing with Israel and has been trying to play both sides. The disaster that was the Oxford Debate on the Gaza War was the perfect encapsulation of Britian's national decline. The British values of civility, politeness, attentive listening, open-mindedness, no name calling, tolerance, and mutual respect have simply gone out the window. The judges at Oxford debates in the past were impartial. The judges at this debate were Pro-Palestinian from the very beginning. The outcome for them was never in doubt. The hall was packed with Jihadist Brownshirts and radical leftists who yelled at and jeered at, the Pro-Israel side. Yoseph Haddad was outright physically removed from the debate hall. Such a spectacle would never have happened at the Oxford Debate Society in your day! Things have got to change in Britain! If Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Duke of Wellington, "Chinese" Charles Gordon, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Henry Morgan, King George III, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Alfred the Great, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden, Margaret Thatcher, Learie Constantine, General Bernard Montgomery, William Gladstone, and Benjamin Disraeli were alive today they'd be shocked at the state Britain has fallen into and are no doubt rolling over in their graves right at this very moment!
Totally agree with your sentiments Noah. I think unemployment is actually ok but your general point holds. Their needs to be a return to genuine British values.
Britishness and British institutions have never been welcoming spaces for Jews. Antisemitism in the UK runs right through the core of its twee and brutish soul. On the surface it's 100 acre woods with owl and Rabbit politely debating in Christopher Robin's garden, but the reality was that the Jewish voice was previously merely tolerated, not embraced. You see anything that challenges the innate built in notion of British superiority, that the Brits hold about themselves and was fed and watered at the fountain of colonialism, is something the Brits attack. Jewish intellectual endeavor, our ethno-religion and our excellence threatened this once great notion of theirs. Nothing has changed, the mask has merely dropped.
Do you live in the UK?