Palestine – European Union Risks “Jew-hater” Label…writes David Singer
The European Union (EU) runs the risk of being labelled “Jew-hater” – should it proceed with its plans requiring supermarkets and other retailers to label products made by Jews in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) differently from those made by Jews in Israel.
No matter what spin the EU uses to justify any such discriminatory labelling – the EU will be seen to be actively supporting the 2005 Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel – whose manifesto states:
“We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel … We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel …”
“These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
-
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”
The BDS campaign regards the ending of all trade and economic relations with Jews living in Judea and Samaria as just the “first step” in its campaign of racial vilification, denigration and delegitimisation designed to ultimately dismantle the Jewish State.
The EU appears to be readying itself to help the BDS campaign achieve this “first step” – as the foreign ministers of 16 of the EU’s 28 member states have urged EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini to introduce the labelling regulations – stating in a letter dated 16 April that they:
“remain of the view that this is an important step in the full implementation of EU longstanding policy, in relation to the preservation of the two-state solution. The continued expansion of Israeli illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and other territories occupied by Israel since 1967 threatens the prospect of a just and final peace agreement.”
These foreign ministers conveniently ignore that:
- The two-state solution – as contemplated by the Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap – is dead and buried after fruitless negotiations and rejected Israeli offers made during the past 20 years have all come to nought. Any hope of peacefully resolving the competing territorial claims of both Jews and Arabs to Judea and Samaria under these negotiating parameters is a figment of the EU’s imagination.
- The Palestinian Authority – Israel’s negotiating partner under Oslo and the Roadmap – no longer exists – having been disbanded by decree of Mahmoud Abbas on 3 January 2013.
- Earlier two-state solutions were rejected by the Arabs:
- when that result could have been achieved with the stroke of an Arab League pen at any time between 1948-1967 or
- when previously proposed by:
- Britain in 1923
- the Peel Commission in 1937
- the United Nations in 1947
- Jews are residing legally in Judea and Samaria pursuant to the rights vested in the Jewish people under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the United Nations Charter.
The EU labelling diktat – if it proceeds – will have very little economic effect.
Such EU action will however align the EU squarely with those BDS racists and Jew-haters who continue to drool at the prospect of Israel being replaced by another Arab and Islamic State.
The EU will indeed merit the “Jew-hater” tag – should its ill-considered and misconceived labelling action proceed.
David Singer is a Sydney Lawyer and Foundation Member of the International Analysts Network
David,
You say the EU “runs the risk” of being labelled “Jew Hater”.
I say they couldn’t care less and would wear this label with pride.
Israel has not helped in any way to put out the wildfire of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel propaganda that is now running amok worldwide. It took the softly softly approach,forever politically correct, forever diplomatic when they were spat on by the EU, forever on the defensive, forever apologetic, always willing to “look into this or that” when the wildest accusations were made against the IDF. And forget about taking strong PHYSICAL action against illegal EU sponsored “Palestinian” construction going on in and around the outskirts of Jerusalem. Even in war, Israel has never sought the only goal that matters, the unconditional surrender of a murderous enemy brought about by overwhelming military retaliation. If nothing else, this would have gained Israel respect around the world even from its non immediate neighbours enemies.
Paul Winter says that Israel has been as weak as water and I would add to that by saying Israel has been damn pathetic.
It is clear for all to see that the current passive, forever reactive, never proactive stance by Israel has been proven to be a disaster and that the country needs an immediate 180 degree turnaround.
One simply cannot talk about Israeli leadership because there is none.
I may be putting myself out there, but here’s the thing, Paul and Gil – your son has just been roughed up pretty badly by a kid at school. But not so badly that he couldn’t take a really good swing back. But he chooses NOT to because there are 15 more bullies standing around WAITING for him to do so; they just can’t wait to join in with the antagonist bully aggressor – and lay directly into your son, the victim. These now 16 bullies don’t have one thought in the world about possibly injuring him for life and/or killing him. But your son chooses to walk away because he knows his parents love him to the end of time and he would rather go home that afternoon than be permanently maimed or killed..
Your comments about Netanyahu being “weak” and incompetent and non-reactive and soft remind me of the thousands of bully parents of the bully kids I have come into contact with during my life.
Israel has WAY, WAY too much to lose by retaliating in a way you are suggesting.
And yes, there is always room for improvement. Netanyahu is getting to it the best way he knows how. Carefully.
Erica,
Spare us your melodramatic rant about turning the other cheek.
You say : “Netanyahu is getting to it the best way he knows how. Carefully.”
What exactly is he getting to?
Now, “here’s the thing” for you to once and for all comprehend.
You do not go anywhere near addressing the issues raised just make some ludicrous comparison about schoolyard bullying.
And by the way, the only way for a child to gain any respect in the rough and tumble of schoolyard bullying is to fight back, hit the bully where it hurts most so hard and furious that neither he or the 15 others standing nearby will ever touch him again.
Clearly your mother didn’t teach you about diplomacy in the school yard. I’m glad you weren’t the father of my children. I’ll not write twice so read what I have written to Paul Winter, if it’s not wasting too much of your precious time.
Erica, what you are saying is that the Jewish state should absorb a few blows and proudly walk away fearing that retaliation will bring harsher responses.
Erica dear, a battlefield is not a school playground. The bully’s buddies are already aiding the bully; the EU, US, UN, Arab League, etc are already assisting the Fakestinians, Israeli forebearence notwithstanding. A sudden, unannounced trouncing of the local Arabs would remind them of the days when Sharon led a unit to punish Arabs who refused to take the path of peace.
And Erica dear, neither Gil nor I are Christians; we do not believe in turning the other cheek. That philosophy only works with people who have consciences, something bullies and bully societies, like the Arabs’, lack. Moreover, in societies like the Arabs’ there is no walking away is a dignified manner; failure to retaliate is taken as an admission of guilt which in turn reinforces the bully’s sense of power and determination to press his attack.
And Erica dear with regard to your precious advice, permit me to remind you of the time when Israel was pressed to take advice like the one you give. Just after Arafat decided to resume his terror war on the Jews, a place in Tel Aviv, the Dolphinarium, where a bunch of kids celebrating their high school graduation was blown up by a homicide bomber. All the wise and noble international advisers told Israel not to retaliate, so stopping the “cycle of violence” i.e. the terror waged by the Arabs; the Arabs’ “honour” (implying that Jews have no honour) would thus be satisfied and peace would break out. Israel did not respond to the Dolphinarium outrage. A few months later the Sbarro pizzaria was targeted by another homicide bomber.
Lastly, Erica my bright girl, permit me to point out that Judaism separated itself from the abominable Middle East societies that practised human sacrifices. Our sophisticated diplomatic leaders have been too ready to accept the sacrifice of Jewish lives for a peace that most mohammedans are not yet willing to accept.
You have taken my example of the school yard WAY too seriously. I am not suggesting for ONE MINUTE that Netanyahu turn the other cheek!. He understands exactly when to bomb the b’Jesus out of his enemies and I personally think its an excellent idea – WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT – which apparently you and I don’t agree upon. It seems, according to you Paul, I’m in good company with the “wise and noble” international advisers who told Israel not to retaliate back then…nothing has changed much..And yes, I get the honor thing with the Arabs. We don’t have to stoop to their level. I am not a pacifist by nature. I’m more than happy to “get my own back” when there is MORAL RELATIVITY! That means WRONG IS WRONG and RIGHT IS RIGHT. Like this BDS thing. And Nazi-ism and all that’s wrong about ISIS. THOSE THINGS DO NOT BELONG ON OUR GLOBE. And they need to be eradicated. By any means. Netanyahu is not sacrificing lives for goodness sake! He’s doing the very thing you are advocating! The very thing that Sharon et al thought was a great way to treat the Arabs! Sacrificial lambs indeed! Now how did that work? Next to G-d, Netanyahu has the hardest job in the world. Timing.
Your playground example was taken for what it suggested; walking away battered, bloody but unbowed. A WW2 photograph taken in Lvov after the Nazi invasion shows a Jewish woman after she had been set upon by the locals, walking along the street in her shoes, stocking holders and nothing else. There is no pride in suffering abuse.
You implied that Jews should turn the other cheek. It does not work. It especially does not work in mohammedan societies.
I never suggested that Jews should stoop to the level of the Arabs in their barbarity. But Jews should be able to communicate with their enemies in the language they understand. The civilised words and acts of Jews are taken as signs of weakness to be exploited. Tragically, that exploitation of decency leads to more deaths than would short sharp retaliation.
Your comment regarding “MORAL RELATIVITY” is contradicted by your “WRONG IS WRONG/RIGHT IS RIGHT” comment. Moral relativity is equating right with wrong, victimiser with victim, attack with retaliation.
Netanyahu may have the hardest job in the world, but the point is that he is doing it badly. Playing the egoistic rosh kehilla of a ghetto fails to meet the needs of a nation state under existential threat. Timing is indeed of the essence and it is well past time for Bibi to hand over to someone with a backbone who tells off Barack Hussein just like the Arabs do, who bombs the bejesus out of Iran, sends the PA packing and retakes territories captured in 1967, reforms the electoral system and the High Court, expels antisemitic foreign agitators and hostile journalists plus UNWRA & EU meddlers and restricts civil rights of all citizens who refuse to do national service. Yes, it is time Israel acted like a sovereign nation instead of a supplicant before international bullies who are unschooled in morality. Never forget that Israel is trying to do (and sadly failing) what Judaism has been trying to do (and failing): that pursuing self interest is natural but that acting morally is self interest as well.
The sooner the curtain comes down on the “Palestine” charade the better.
Gil
Federica Mogherini does not appear to agree with you:
“Any attempt to divide the peoples of Europe into “us” and “them” brings us in the wrong direction. The migrants and us. The Muslims and us. The Jews and us, as anti-Semitism has not been defeated at all. The “other” and us. We learnt from our history that we all are someone else’s “other”. The fear of the other can only lead us to new conflicts.”
http://eeas.europa.eu/statements-eeas/2015/150625_07_en.htm
Hopefully Mogherini will put the EU’s proposed labeling regulations in the shredder and show she is really serious about ending this blatant attempt to support the BDS campaign calling for the destruction of the Jewish State.
You are perfectly right that the EU is heading toward a Jew-hating. But isn’t it just being more open about what it already is?
The problem as I see it is not that the EU is just being the EU – Jew hating – but that Israel has been as weak as water. It should have let the Arabs go to Jordan in 1967 instead of wrecking the bridges over the Jordan. It should never have entered negotiations with terrorists. It should have shipped the terror leaders back to Tunisia when Arafat escalated the terror war in 2000. And now, when the Arabs are lying, inciting, breaking undertakings it is still treating them as a peace partner with whom it can share the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. The problem would long ago have vanished if Israeli governments had faced reality and annexed Judea and Samaria and treated those Arabs who were not prepared to live in peace with Jews as enemy aliens, expelled UNWRA making their lives as hard as it is for their kin in Lebanon and given them a golden handshake with an permanent exit visa for Israel protected non-citizens.
That the EU is contemplating such a move should come as no surprise. Time and again they have shown their true colours and this latest perfidy is no exception.
The best revenge, as they say, is living well and this is what Israel continues to do. Vigilance, patience, intelligence and foresight will see Israel and her people survive not only this round but in the years to come a nation who continues to help lead the world in science, technology and commerce.
The European Union (EU) runs the risk of being labelled “Jew-hater”
They deserve this name, since they have become more “Eurabia” than “Europe”. They obviously want to be like the UN when they grow up.