They don’t have to do the dirty, immoral work of opposing Israel’s existence directly; no messy concentration camps. The EU pays others to do it (for specifics, see the website of NGO-Monitor).
By MOSHE DANNInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Maurer (L) shakes hands with Hamas Gaza Chief Yehya Al-Sinwar during their meeting in Gaza City September 5, 2017.(photo credit: REUTERS)
The most potent non-military threat to Israel’s existence is the opposition to Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights by the international community, led by the European Union.The EU is the largest single donor to the Palestinians – more than a half-billion euros annually. It funds over two dozen anti-Israel propaganda organizations (NGOs) dedicated to demonizing Israel – over €6 million annually. In addition, these NGOs also receive millions from individual European countries. The EU is the largest contributor to UNRWA, which is dedicated to Israel’s demise. The EU supported US president Barack Obama’s “deal” with Iran to produce weapons of mass destruction and supports “non-military” organizations run by or associated with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria. And the EU is one of the largest contributors to the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.They don’t have to do the dirty, immoral work of opposing Israel’s existence directly; no messy concentration camps. The EU pays others to do it (for specifics, see the website of NGO-Monitor).The EU supports Arab and Palestinian demands that Israel withdraw from all areas conquered by the IDF in the 1967 Six Day War, including “eastern” Jerusalem, as well as demands for a sovereign Palestinian state. This is the “elephant in the room”: it propels anti-Israel BDS campaigns, fueling anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred and violence. It challenges the legitimacy of Israeli sovereignty and the rights of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael – the Land of Israel.In addition, the EU has set impossible conditions for resolving Israeli-Palestinian disputes: Unless Palestinian terrorist organizations (e.g. PLO/Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc.) agree, nothing Israel does is acceptable. This ignores explicit calls for Israel’s destruction in the PLO and Hamas charters, and it places terrorist organizations on parity with Israel. Moreover, it gives the Palestinians a veto on any Israeli claims.The EU also subsidizes illegal Arab construction in areas under Israeli control, in violation of the Oslo Accords and Israeli law. (See: Hillel Frisch, “The EU battles Israel in Area C,” JPost, August 16, 2019).The EU’s recognition of a Palestinian state, therefore, is the next step toward the Palestinian’s final solution: Eliminating Israel and creating a Palestinian state, “from the river to the sea. (”For a critical analysis: Efraim Karsh, “The Oslo Disaster”; BESA studies #123, 2016.)Arab Palestinians are not angry because they don’t have a state; they are angry because Jews have one. They do not hate because they lack opportunities, but because in their eyes, they live in a world without them. They are willing to sacrifice themselves in attacking Jews, not because they want more political rights and economic benefits, but because they believe that martyrdom and jihad are the supreme values.After the war in 1967, Jews began to build communities (“settlements”) in these historically and strategically important areas, prompting opposition by Arab states, the UN and especially a private Swiss organization which has a unique position at the UN: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). As the official interpreter of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the ICRC decided that the areas conquered by the IDF constituted “occupied Palestinian territory (OPT)” and declared that Israel had violated the convention and, therefore, international law. Their unilateral decision was adopted by the international community and is widely used to attack Israel.
“Ending the occupation,” therefore, means evacuating Jews from all of the areas which were conquered by the IDF in 1967, including the Golan Heights. This would permit terrorist groups to move in and carry out the war to destroy Israel at a closer range; it would devastate Israel and destabilize the entire region. Why does the EU support it?Such a withdrawal, however, would not satisfy Arabs – especially Palestinian leaders – because they claim that “the occupation” did not begin in 1967 when the Jordanian occupation ended, but in 1948 when the British Mandate ended and the State of Israel was established – called the Nakba (tragedy) by Arabs. This means that according to them, not only should Israel withdraw to the UN’s Partition Plan proposed in 1947, but that Arabs who fled to UNRWA-sponsored camps in Syria and Lebanon – and their descendants who are considered “refugees” – are entitled to return to what is now Israel. The EU is the largest donor to UNRWA, which is dedicated to the “Palestinian right of return.”In short, “ending-the-occupation” means ending Israel’s existence.“End-the-occupation” also means ending Israeli and Egyptian restrictions on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip; permitting Hamas to build air and sea ports; removing checkpoints; and ending preemptive actions by Israeli security forces to both prevent terrorist attacks and arrest terrorists. It means empowering terrorist groups, as happened after withdrawals from Judea and Samaria (the Oslo Agreements, 1993-96), southern Lebanon (2000) and the Gaza Strip (2005).AS US SECRETARY of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump announced recently, “settlements are not illegal.” That is a welcome step towards truth and reality.Zionism means asserting the sovereignty of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael. It means building a society and culture based on Jewish values and traditions, creating a homeland for the Jewish people. That is the purpose and mission of the state and its institutions.That was the purpose and mission of the Jewish people when it occupied Eretz Yisrael under Joshua and established the First Commonwealth under King David; when it re-occupied Eretz Yisrael under Ezra and Nehemiah and established the Second Commonwealth; and when the State of Israel was founded, creating the basis for the Third Commonwealth.The occupation and settlement of Eretz Yisrael, by and for the Jewish people, is the first principle; it is reaffirmed by millennia of Jewish history and embedded in daily prayers and practice.The second principle is the authenticity of Jewish history and the intimate connection of the Jewish people to Eretz Yisrael. No other group of people can claim this.The third principle is the moral imperative of the survival of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael. Those who seek to murder Jews and destroy the State of Israel represent an evil; supporting those efforts contributes to evil.The fourth principle is the establishment of just laws and civil rights for all groups, including minorities.Although Jewish law is of the highest value, that does not mean imposing halacha, but respect for the Jewish legal system and its authority – a structure that has kept the Jewish people intact for four millennia and has been the backbone of Jewish civilization.The fifth principle is national integrity, national self-respect, the willingness to protect ourselves by whatever means necessary. That includes ending all support for terrorism, such as “pay-for-slay” payments to terrorist families, preventing bodies of terrorists from being honored as “martyrs,” deporting accomplices and confiscating their property. All forms of incitement must be prohibited, especially in media and mosques.Asserting Israeli sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael, therefore, is not “occupation”; it is why we are here.
