15 Jewish soldiers among the 45,000 British fighters

RePost | 31.03.2003 04:25

"There are some 15 Jewish soldiers among the 45,000 British fighters
currently in action in the U.S.-led campaign"

U.K. lets Jewish soldiers in Gulf erase religion from
dog-tags
By , Haaretz Correspondent
LONDON - The British Army has allowed its Jewish soldiers involved in the war in Iraq
to erase mention of their religion on their dog-tags, fearing they would be executed if they
were captured. There are some 15 Jewish soldiers among the 45,000 British fighters
currently in action in the U.S.-led campaign.

The British Ministry of Defense made the decision following concerns expressed by
Jewish community leaders in Britain. The ministry added that kosher rations had been
provided to those Jewish soldiers who requested them.

During the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraqis would beat and parade prisoners in front of the
television cameras, and the British military fears that Jewish prisoners would come in for
a worse fate.

The British dog-tags list the soldier's name, rank, identity number and religion, with the
latter intended to facilitate proper burial in the event that the body of the soldier cannot be
brought home.

On Friday, Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, published a special prayer for the safety
of the soldiers in Iraq. The prayer was to be recited in all synagogues over the Sabbath.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=275621

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Comments

Hide the following 16 comments

Interesting

31.03.2003 08:27

The last time I checked the statistics, a few years ago, there were said to be about 200,000 Jews in Britain, which has a population of about 55-56 million.
So, proportionately, there should be more than 100 British servicemen having to alter their dogtags, not 15.
In reality, I think Jews are under-represented in Her Majesty's Forces, though certainly not in the US and British governments.

Steve

Discrepancy

31.03.2003 09:41

There is though a fair proportion of British who hold Israeli citizenship who are more willing to take up national service in Israel than serve with the British forces.

Many have seen service in the occupied territories and quite a few have participated in the usual seriously nasty activities against the Palestinians.

When questioned, most are more interested in the serving the nazi-clone state than Britain.

It is time that the British government redress this problem of its citizens more keen at service another country than the one they are normally resident at.

Shaul Morefartz

addon to steve's comment

31.03.2003 09:44

Lets be thoughtful and careful here Steve.

All soldiers are there to kill.
The british soldiers are there to kill for a sick regime that has historically conducted atrocities towards most of the planet.
Lately the british armed pigs are being cheap mercenaries for the US oil industry. Apart from all the killings of innocent civilians and other atrocities being conducted by the british pigs they are responsible fro all what the US pigs are doing too.

In this context I apreciate the non participation of my jewish brothers and sisters in not being pigs themselves (with the exception of the 15 or so pigs of course)

I ask you also to appreciate that most of the UK armed pigs are misled jobseekers, some being kids who never grew up and the rest being plain thugs.
The jewish community in the UK staying clear of the above categories of soceity as much as the asian community for another example is to be admired.

ram

Ethnic minorities

31.03.2003 10:05

If Jews were under-represented in the army, they would be accused by anti-semites of getting others to do the dirty work of the World Zionist Conspiracy. If they were over-represented, then this just proves that the World Zionist Conspiracy is taking over the state. What toss.

The fact is that the British Army finds it hard to recruit members of ethnic minorities because most soldiers are stupid, racist, queer-bashing thugs who regularly pick fights with "civvies" when they are not fighting foreigners and commies. No member of the ethnic minorities - or women and gay men, for that matter - is safe in the army, where they are subject to ritual abuse which are hidden by official cover-ups. I doubt Jews would be immune from endemic racism in the armed forces. So, the reason for this disproportionately low number of Jews in the army is fairly obvious.

Dan

Where is this going to?

31.03.2003 10:20

What is this rubbish above? The comments are even worse. Where will this line of thought end for you?
You are a bunch of anti-Jewish bigots!

SOLIDARITY WITH ISRAEL!

julie

Lordy

31.03.2003 10:58

And your an idiot so GO away and come back when you have something original to post.

daniel gurney

divide-and-rule

31.03.2003 11:10

Let's not get sucked into this crap. There are only two groups of people who benefit from endless arguments about 'Jewish conspiracies', Nazis and ultra-Zionists.

Because of the open-source nature of IMC we can't really kick either group off. But we can learn to recognise them and tell them both to get stuffed!

kurious oranj

Anti-semitic tactics

31.03.2003 11:35

It's an anti-semitic tactic to claim that those who challenge hatred of Jews are defending the Israeli state.

Dan

Where are the other 210?

31.03.2003 13:42

Jews represent 05% of the British population
05% of 45,000 is 225

Verne

Fight war

31.03.2003 13:58

The other 210 Jews are probably protesting against the war.

Dan

it's a class thing....

31.03.2003 14:43

It's all about class, soldiers are generally working class. The Jewish community is mainly middle class therefore the number of Jewish soldiers is less than an average of populaton.
Also soldiers tend to come from Northern England, Scotland and Wales - so ethnic minorities will also be under represented compared to the national average.

By the way both of the squadies taken prisoner last week were Afro-Caribean - work that one out!

thearmchairgeneral

Few black squaddies

31.03.2003 15:20

The two black guys taken prisoner by Iraq were Kenyan civilians employed by the British army. Since Blair found out they were African, he's ignored their plight - as he ignores the plight of Africa as a whole (except when white racists get their farms repossessed).

Dan

Sorry Dan look what has happened

31.03.2003 19:37

NEAR BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Two Kenyan truck drivers kidnapped 10 days ago outside the town of Zubayr in southern Iraq have been rescued by British troops who burst into the school where they were being held.

David Shira Mukaria and Jakubu Maina Kamau said they had been kept blindfolded, with their hands and feet bound, and without food and water.

The two men were abducted by Iraqi militiamen after becoming separated from a food convoy heading for the southern seaport of Umm Qasr.

Military officials said they believed the men were aid convoy drivers, but the pair said they had been delivering food supplies to the U.S. military.

"We got a signal that two guys were being held in a building and had been kidnapped," said Sergeant Bob Barnet of the British Black Watch. "We went to the place where they were being held and searched the building."

jobseekers outside Basra

01.04.2003 12:58

Someone commented that it was a class war.

No it is a racist war.

Just look at the fact. Never believe the Pig Media (Reuters inclusive).
Remember the wholesake surrender of Basra?
Pigs being in the center of town on the second day?
The uprising on the fifth day?

Two desperate Kenyans who were doing dirty jobs wer captured and shown on Iraqi television.

Now do you really want to believe that the Iraqi resistance in Basra could not take them to the center of the city of Basra to die with them?

This clearly seems to be an effort in the Iraqi's part of releasing these two idiots without endangering the positive global image Iraqis suddenly find themselves in.

A good bet would be they exchanged the drivers by leaving them in the school and leting the pigs know that they were there.

Obvisously they would have kept them blind folded with their hands and feet bound. Without food and water too because the pigs have bombed the food reserves and water purification plants for Basra. There is a cruel shortage for these essential human needs in Basra right now.

How the Pigmedia and military propaganda tries to work together with obvious holes is amusing. They are not just jobseekers but the dumbest among them too.

ram

Jews accussed of duel loyalties?

30.11.2003 00:47

Only classical anti-semites accuse Jews of having "duel loyalties". Remember it was covering the Dreyfuss affair that inspired Herzel's (the founder of modern zionism) idea for the modern Jewish state. You folks at Indymedia are no better than the soviets and the nazis. You just wear different clothing.

Matt
mail e-mail: sdfsd@hotmail.com

Feels like a campaign...

30.11.2003 18:27

Someone has been combing Indymedia for old articles about Israel, and posting comments on several of them accusing us of anti-semitism. Looks like someone is building up ammo for an anti-Indymedia campaign.

It's no good accusing "You folks at Indymedia" of being anti-semites. We have an open pubilshing policy, and there is both pro-Israel and anti-Israel propaganda to be found on here if you dig around. If you want something better to appear on here, then write a better article.

Indymedia is you, not some "them" media group that you need to fight.

imc bloke