Europe Shakes as Israel Stands Firm

There were 11 million Jews living in Europe when World War II broke out in 1939. By the time the conflict ended six years later, there were just five million left. The rest had perished in Hitler's gas chambers. Europe had been a refuge for Jews since the Romans destroyed the Holy Land in 135 AD, but their history here is one of almost continual persecution.

After the Holocaust, however, Jews were at last able to find true refuge back in their own ancient land. Yet still Europe remains largely aloof and unfriendly, in spite of the fact that Jewish people have contributed so much to Western civilisation. Still European powers try to force their will on Israel, as with the recent Paris peace initiative, calling on the nations to discuss Israel's future without involvement of the parties concerned – that is, the Jewish state and the Palestinian Authority.

Misguided Peace Efforts

Europe wishes to impose a peace deal on the Israelis and Palestinians, convinced by rhetoric claiming that a resolution to the issue will end global terror. Instead of addressing the raging civil war in Syria along with the carnage wreaked by Islamic State and the threat to world peace posed by Iran (the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism), the French summit chose to focus on Israel (I suspect that the divine answer to this ploy has already come in the form of the dreadful floods we have witnessed in France and Germany, followed by a serious crack in the stability of the EU caused by Britain's exit).

Israel's position remains unchanged: "Peace with the Palestinians will be achieved only through two-way, direct negotiations without preconditions", according to a Foreign Ministry statement.¹

Crucially, EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini recently stressed that they do not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, whereas it is widely understood that for Israel to give up this territory would be suicidal. We would likely have ISIS flooding into Israel and the results could be far more extreme than what we have experienced since withdrawing from Gaza.²

The EU, Israel and Britain

Clearly Europe is experiencing great turbulence – in danger of being swamped by Muslim refugees, under increasing threat from Islamic terror and facing the potential for financial meltdown as economies are set on a downward spiral. And I believe that this is not unconnected with its unhelpful attitude to Israel.

For years the EU has been pumping money into the PA for no visible return. There is little evidence of Palestinians being lifted out of their poverty, or of the emergence of an infrastructure on which a future state can be built. The rotten harvest of billions of dollars in aid is seen only in the ongoing violence encouraged by Palestinian media and educational institutions. What sort of crazy investment is this? It's like pouring petrol on a barbecue. And taxpayers in Britain have been part of this murderous exercise.

I noticed that a senior Israeli analyst had expressed hopes of Britain remaining in Europe because of her modifying influence on attitudes to Israel.³ But another group encouraged expatriates to vote Leave.

Various Israeli ministers have said they would like to see Israel in the EU, but this is not likely to become reality, though the Jewish state is a member of many European transnational federations and frameworks and takes part in a number of European sporting events.⁴

As I cast my vote in the referendum, I thought of the long-held view of many Christians that the EU is the incarnation of the blasphemous Beast of Revelation that will seek to draw worship away from God to itself. We know from the various treaties marking progress toward a unified Europe – Rome, Lisbon, Maastricht – that our Creator has been completely left out of its constitution, in sharp contrast to the unwritten constitution of Great Britain based on the Magna Carta and the Coronation Oath specifically committed to democracy and the Protestant faith.

David Cameron, to his credit, is responsible for calling the Referendum which has (hopefully) got us out of this God-defying syndicate despite him personally campaigning to stay in, and is described by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu as "a true friend of Israel and the Jewish people. Throughout his premiership the security, economic and technological cooperation between the United Kingdom and Israel has greatly expanded."⁵

Also under Mr Cameron, Britain began drafting laws outlawing the boycott effort against Israel and he has allocated an extra £12 million toward protecting Jewish communities.

Following the Referendum result, British Ambassador to Israel David Quarrey said: "The relationship between Britain and Israel will not change significantly. Britain will be friends with Israel both within the EU and outside it, but Israel's relations with the EU in the future will have to be determined without Britain as a mediator."⁶

Brussels and the Palestinian Authority

The gullible nature of the godless bureaucrats in Brussels is perfectly illustrated by the standing ovation given to a speech by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas in which he claimed that a group of rabbis had called on Jewish settlers in the West Bank to poison the Palestinian water supply. I note that this was the very day (23 June) the EU was shaken to its core by the British vote to withdraw from the union. Abbas subsequently retracted the accusations – which merely echoed a popular medieval anti-Semitic libel – after investigations by news organisations had concluded that it was entirely fabricated.⁷

In his speech to the European Parliament, Abbas also made the ludicrous claim that "there will be no more terrorism in the Middle East or elsewhere in the world" once the Israeli "occupation" ends.⁸ And yet he won rapturous applause! What does this say about the spiritual state of Europe?

This is all part of the PA's manipulative plan of gradually achieving statehood while side-stepping direct negotiations with Israel, a ploy which has won increasing support from EU nations. Whereas Phase 1 of the so-called 'Roadmap Peace Plan' demanded Palestinians recognise Israel's right to exist in the region, renounce terror against the Jewish nation, dismantle terrorist organisations, and end all forms of anti-Israel incitement in their media and school system - none of these requirements have been put into action.

If Israel Goes Down, We All Go Down

Reflecting on the Holocaust in an article originally said to have been published in a Spanish newspaper in 2008, Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez wrote: "Europe died in Auschwitz...We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity and talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world."⁹

He said Muslims had brought religious extremism and death by blowing up trains (a reference to the Madrid bombings committed by Al Qaeda) whereas the Jews that Europe had murdered had pursued nothing but life and peace. "The Jews do not promote the brainwashing of children in military training camps, neither do they hijack plans, kill Olympic athletes [a reference to the Munich massacre of 1972], or blow themselves up in German restaurants. And there is not a single Jew who has destroyed a church. Nor have their leaders called for jihad and death to infidels [non-believers]."¹⁰

And it is worth noting that former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has urged support for Israel on the basis that "if it goes down, we all go down" (is that what's happening now?).¹¹ Aznar argues that the Jewish state is at the cutting edge in the battle between militant Islam and the West and, in a Times article, concludes: "Israel is a fundamental part of the West which is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is upturned and Israel lost, then we are lost too. Whether we like it or not our fate is inextricably intertwined."¹²

Notes

1 Keinon, H. Israel slams EU backing of international peace conference. Jerusalem Post, 21 June 2016.
2 Soakell, D. Watching Over Zion report, Christian Friends of Israel, 23 June 2016.
3 Oded Eran, senior analyst at the Institute for National Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv, told reporters: "It is preferable for Israel that Britain remain in the EU, where it is a voice of moderation in favour of Israel." (David Soakell, ibid).
4 See note 2.
5 JPost Staff, Lazaroff, T. Netanyahu hails Cameron as 'true friend of Israel' after British PM resigns. Jerusalem Post, 24 June 2016.
6 Jerusalem News Network, 26 June 2016.
7 Abbas retracts charge that rabbis called for poisoning of Palestinian wells. Jerusalem Post, 25 June 2016.
8 Lazaroff, T, Keinon, H. Netanyahu slams Abbas 'blood libel' as he flies to Rome in new diplomatic push. Jerusalem Post, 23 June 2016.
9 Gardner, C. Peace in Jerusalem. olivepresspublisher.com, p191.
10 Ibid
11 Support Israel: if it goes down, we all go down. The Times, 17 June 2010.
12 Ibid.