There has been rash of stories in the Jewish press since the death of Queen Elizabeth on September 8, about the other British royals, and their connection, or lack of it, to Israel and to the Jewish people. Why did Queen Elizabeth never visit Israel, though she went to 129 countries? Why was Prince William the first royal to make an official visit to Israel? Is King Charles a “Christian Zionist” who is keenly aware of “Jewish Jerusalem” from his visit to the grave of his grandmother, Queen Alice of Greece, a “righteous gentile” who is buried in the Christian cemetery abutting the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world on the Mount of Olives? And what about Prince Harry? Why have his brother, his father, and his grandfather all visited Israel, and he has yet to do so?
A discussion of Prince Harry and an attempt to explain, and at times explain away, some of his least attractive episodes concerning Jews can be found here: “Controversy and Compassion: Prince Harry & Meghan Markle’s Relationship With the Jews,” by Rachel O’Donoghue, Algemeiner, September 14, 2022:
…Yet, in the two and a half years since Harry and Meghan waved goodbye to the gray skies of Great Britain, they have seemingly gone out of their way to cause controversy, such as their headline-grabbing interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, in which they claimed racism was a factor in their decision to quit as working royals.
In fact, there is no evidence of “racism” from any of his fellow royals. What Harry apparently deeply resented, and may have thought of as “racism,” were exactly two words that Prince William used in referring to Harry’s then-girlfriend Megan Markle: “that girl.” That is not racist at all, and certainly did not deserve 15 years, or even 15 minutes, of Harry’s resentment.
However, British historian Robert Lacey asserted that the real reason for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s departure was the result of an incident that had occurred some 15 years previously — namely, the fateful evening when Prince Harry was photographed in a Nazi uniform at a costume party.
According to Lacey, Harry believes he took too much of the blame for the incident, even though his brother, Prince William, had been there when he chose the offensive outfit. This apparently resulted in a long-simmering rift between the royal siblings that paved the way for Harry to abandon his duties 15 years later.…
Perhaps you have forgotten the scandal of Harry’s Nazi uniform. He had been invited to a costume party, and decided that a Nazi costume would be just the thing. Unfortunately for the offending Prince, someone at the party snapped his picture and the photograph appeared in the tabloid press. Excuses were made because of his “youth.” But Harry was not a child; he was 20 years old, and had come to man’s estate. The choice of costume was unforgivable. Of course, not only the Board of Jewish Deputies, but many non-Jews as well, denounced what was more than a matter of simple bad taste.
What Harry apparently resented, as he felt sorry for himself in this whole sorry affair of his own making, was that his brother William, who had been with him when he rented the outfit at Maud’s Cotswold Costumes, laughed with him at the party – those Nazis, if you take them in the right silly spirit, can be great fun! – and laughed again with him as they walked home after the party. So why wasn’t William also raked over the coals? This is what made Harry so angry.
To quell the storm of criticism through his publicist, the Clarence House Press office released this statement: “I am very sorry if I caused any offense or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I apologize.”
A “poor choice of costume”? It was a grotesque choice, and an intolerable affront, not just to Jews, but to everyone who understood what the Nazis meant.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that the prince starred in a tourism advertisement with an actor who was once suspended from his job in 2010 for making antisemitic jokes.
Dave Fane, a New Zealand comic, was forced to apologize to the New Zealand Jewish Council after he “joked” during a 2010 radio show that Jews are “expendable” and “Hitler had a right.”
One can only hope that Harry was unaware that the man he would be working with in this advertisement (Harry has to make a living, after all), a certain “comic” Dave Fane, in the past had liked to make jokes about Jews being “expendable” and claiming – just a joke! don’t be so thin-skinned! – that “Hitler had a right.” Thigh-slapping. Or did Harry know about Fane’s sense of humor, and not really care?
Harry seems not to have been terribly interested in the worst crime in history – the Holocaust. While he was a student at Eton, a Holocaust survivor gave a talk about the Nazi genocide. She recalled Harry’s bored indifference to the subject:
And in January 2022, a Holocaust survivor observed that when Harry was a student at the prestigious Eton College, he failed to take seriously a talk she was giving about the Nazi genocide of Jews.
Speaking to the Radio Times, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, 97, a cellist who survived the Auschwitz and Belsen death camps, said: “Of course Harry wasn’t taking it seriously — just another boring lady who comes to talk about boring things — but [Prince] William is a different character altogether.”…
This unfeeling, boorish, and bored behavior – his response to a talk about the Holocaust by a survivor – strikes me as on a par with his wearing a Nazi uniform.
But he’s not always been in the wrong when it comes to Jews and Israel:
Although he is famously “woke,” the Duke refused to bow to pressure from supporters of the antisemitic (and self-proclaimed “progressive”) Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, who had criticized the Invictus Games for allowing former IDF soldiers to compete.…
He didn’t succumb to demands by the BDSers that IDF veterans be barred from the Invictus Games. That is one point in his favor. But it’s a very tiny point. It would have been impossible for him to try to enforce such a ban on Israeli participants. There would have been an uproar, and reminders in the media of Harry’s Nazi costume and even of his apparent eyes-glazed-over response to the Holocaust lecture by a survivor.
As a couple, Harry and Meghan have demonstrated their support for the Jewish community in a number of ways, including a March 2022 donation to HIAS, the largest Jewish nonprofit for refugee assistance in the world.
How does a contribution to HIAS for the support of Ukrainian refugees, few of whom were Jewish, “demonstrate their support for the Jewish community”?
This followed an earlier £10,000 ($11,700) donation to a joint Muslim and Jewish kitchen in the UK that serves free meals to people in need.
As questions arise about whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may return to more prominent royal roles following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, we can only hope the couple will continue supporting the Jewish community and giving generously to worthy causes.
“Continue supporting the Jewish community”? Two small contributions, one intended for Ukrainian refugees (though the donation was given to a Jewish organization that could be counted on to deliver the aid), and another to one of those Muslim-Jewish interfaith kitchens that can deceptively suggest a future of happy coexistence, are the sum total of what is optimistically described as Harry’s “support“ of the Jewish community.
Here’s what one would like Prince Harry to do, if he is truly intent on showing sympathetic interest in Jews and Israel. He could arrange, while in the U.K., to meet with Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan, and thus a soldier likely to appeal to Prince Harry, for the Prince served in Afghanistan for ten weeks as a forward air controller, until-the press got wind of his whereabouts and he had to leave for security reasons. Colonel Kemp could set Prince Harry straight on the IDF, that Kemp correctly calls “the most moral army in the world.”
Prince Harry and Megan could also pay a visit to Israel, as his brother and late father have done, not only to visit the grave of his great-grandmother, the “Righteous Gentile” Queen Alice of Greece, on the Mount of Olives, but to experience for himself the Start-Up Nation, the little country that could, and the lively intelligent humorful people who have made it all happen. His visit to Yad Vashem should provide him with a salutary shock and a sense of belated anguish at what, as a shallow 20-year-old, he had once thought could be a source of humor.
I’d call that a good start.
milo minderbinder says
Hugh Fitzgerald asks the question,
“Is King Charles a “Christian Zionist.”
Maybe, a more pertinent question would be… Is King Charles “a True, Bible Believing Christian?” Or, is he, as so many others in the world are doing, just going through the motions, a Christian in name only?
“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.” 2 Peter 2:1
John ..Smith says
Milo
Personally I don’t believe Charles is a Christian Zionist, he speaks far to favourably of the Palestinian cause and islam in particular.
As a person I have nothing against him, but there have been times he’s let his political views slip and they certainly clash with mine. He was appalled at the idea of sending illegal immigrants to Rwanda. Like you say I believe he’s “just going through the motions, a Christian in name only.”
gravenimage says
Charles seems to be disturbingly Islamophilic.
somehistory says
I believe he’s a fake….in a number of ways. It’s easy to claim to be Christian. It’s much more involved and difficult to live up to the claim.
Hoi Polloi says
Yes to John, SH, and Barbara. He’s far more concerned with pleasing muslims than with forcing the issue of their genocide of Christians.
somehistory says
HP, It takes courage, intestinal fortitude, honesty, integrity, ethics, and a strong desire to do what is right to stand up to the threats that come from mozlums.
chucky has none of those things; he left his young wife to engage in adultery with his now wife. Any creep who will do that, is not going to stand up to threats from those who would slit the throat.
He evidently doesn’t really believe in Christ and His promises. Or the Judgment for those who profess, but who don’t love what is right and hate what is bad.
gravenimage says
+1
John ..Smith says
Somehistory,
Diana was no angel herself, she had a five year affair with James Hewitt while still married to Charles. And according to her former bodyguard she was committing adultery well before Charles started seeing Camilla. Just take a look at Prince Harry he’s a ringer of James Hewitt, no way is Charles the father.
somehistory says
John, I know she was also wrong, but according to many reports, chucky was busy with camilla before he married diana.
I’m just saying, that pretending to be Christian while committing adultery, shows he’s not up to the demands of living up to the claims of being Christian, and the Commands of Jesus.
I wouldn’t want him making any decisions for me and mine. and he is unable to stand up to islam, or he would have done so before as he has had plenty of opportunities.
John ..Smith says
Agreed Somehistory,
Chucky does come across as a nice man, but the problem is he’s a very misinformed man. He is not just unable to stand up to islam, he is actually embracing islam. Just like the pope this makes him a very dangerous man to be our king.
somehistory says
John, these times remind me over and over of the Bible verse which speaks of the trouble for the populace when the king is evil.
Proverbs 29:2
“When the righteous flourish, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan. King James Bible When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. New King James Version”
https://biblehub.com/proverbs/29-2.
gravenimage says
Charles does not just assume that Islam is benign–he actively embraces it.
Barbara says
Recently read where he is learning Arabic to read the Koran. He has had favorably reactions to the Muslims.
Scotsman48 says
Mel Brooks did a wonderful impression of Adolf Hitler making him out to be a real buffoon in singing Springtime from Hitler… Just a piece, just a little piece of Europe…
Great movie…
But then a Jew playing Hitler in a comedy would not even allowed in today crazy PC world.
gravenimage says
Scotsman, I’m not sure we can necessarily take Prince Harry’s wearing a Nazi uniform as a condemnation of the Nazis, whereas there was no mistaking Mel Brooks’ mocking the Nazis in his comedy.
Infidel says
Wearing a Nazi uniform at a Haloween party was an unmistakable mockery, if not condemnation of Nazism, as Mel Brooks’ skit was. While I don’t like what Harry & Meghan have been doing in recent years, I did feel at the time that the public did overreact to Harry’s skit. And reading about what his brother did both before and after the party, it seems just as hilarious
I also don’t blame Harry for feeling bored whenever holocaust lectures were going on. A few descriptive sentences would be enough to make me condemn the Nazis, as I’m sure it would for a lot of people, Harry included. For instance, I know and condemn what muslims did to Kashmiri Hindus, but I didn’t watch ‘The Kashmir Files’ just b’cos I don’t have the stomach to watch such brutality on video
somehistory says
I have read several personal accounts of people who survived the demonic treatment handed out by the nazis. I don’t wish to sit and listen to someone describe in detail what was done. When reading, I could skip over the gruesome parts, knowing they were too much for my sensitive nerves, but could just as easily condemn them; just as I can’t sit and listen to what is done to unborn babies, and which I strongly condemn. I don’t have to know all of the details to know it’s evil. Murder is wrong….however it is carried out…murder is wrong.
My eyes might “glaze over” too as I made my mind focus on something that would keep me from throwing up and/or fainting.
I know God knows it all and will mete out appropriate Judgments.
gravenimage says
Wearing a costume for Hallowe’en does not tell you in and of itself *what* the wearer is saying–it can be lauding, it can be in fun, it can be in condemnation. I don’t know enough about how Harry acted at this party to know how it was to be taken.
And he was in college during this lecture on the Holocaust–old enough to at least act in a respectful manner.
somehistory says
Question: “late father “? late getting there …as he is not dead. not yet, although he’s looking older than his years.
It must be hard to live under a constant spotlight where everything one does and says is pulled apart, and scrutinized., and criticized.
gravenimage says
Somehistory, I imagine this was supposed to be a reference to his *grandfather*, Prince Philip. He was the first British royal to visit Israel, for a ceremony naming his mother Princess Alice as “righteous among the nations’” for hiding three Jews from the Nazis.
somehistory says
thank you, g. It didn’t make sines to me. that sounds reasonable.
gravenimage says
Thanks, Somehistory. And good catch–this obviously was not a reference to his father Charles.
gravenimage says
Prince Harry and the Jews
…………………………..
Not a great record, certainly–any one of these things taken in isolation–even the Nazi uniform–is probably forgivable. But altogether not so great. His brother William really does seem to be a much better man, though.
chelseaboy says
I think most people in the UK see Harry as a decent guy but a very gullible fool who has been run rings round by America’s greatest living actress
gravenimage says
I’m not sure I’d consider Meghan Markle “America’s greatest living actress”–although he has certainly done a lot of “acting” in the public eye since retiring from TV drama.