[THE IDEA CAME FROM THE EU]
Aryeh Tepper, JEWISH IDEAS DAILY
Palestinian political figures, said to be frustrated with the pace and trajectory of peace talks with Israel, have increasingly made noises about taking matters into their own hands and unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state. In practical terms, this means implementing Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s plan for Palestinian independence first unveiled in August 2009. According to that plan, the Palestinians would devote two years to developing the infrastructure of their embryonic state, including in areas under full Israeli control, at the conclusion of which the Palestinian state would be a fact on the ground lacking only international recognition.
How exactly would they secure that recognition? Once their fledgling state was in place, the Palestinians would take their case to the UN while also seeking the de facto endorsement of Western powers, especially from within the European Union. In going down this path they would be following the lead of the breakaway province of Kosovo that in 2008 unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia. That declaration was the culmination of a twelve-year process that began with the 1996-99 war between Muslim Kosovars and Christian Serbs and followed eight years in which the region was administered by the United Nations. Even though fewer than 40 percent of UN member states now recognize Kosovo’s independence, the U.K., France, Germany, and the U.S. were quick to grant official recognition, and from Kosovo’s perspective these are the countries that count. The Palestinians agree.
And where did Palestinians get the idea of imitating Kosovo? Not on their own, it seems. Instead, like so many mischievous and reckless ideas of our era, this one was the gift of European diplomats. According to Saeb Erekat, the senior Palestinian negotiator, the notion was first proposed to the Palestinians in 2008 by Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign-policy chief, and was soon echoed by others. Adding fuel, a 2009 EU document raised the possibility of unilaterally recognizing east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. More recently still, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, averred that “one cannot rule out in principle” Security Council recognition of Palestinian independence.
Most of the antiSemitism I’ve seen is generated by Jews, many of them Israeli politicians. There are some others; but if the Jews themselves didn’t continually broadcast to the world what awful people they are, I dare say their lot would be much improved.
Kosovar independence is a tragedy: Kosovo contains the original homeland of the Serb people, and its most important historic places. The Albanians who live there now, primarily migrated into the area around 1900. In short, it’s almost an exact replica of Judea and Samaria. When Serbia was struggling against the US and NATO against ethnic-cleansing Croats, Bosniaks and Kosovars, only the Russians stood with them (and the Greeks remained neutral): Israel did not lift a finger to help them. Now Israel is suffering a similar fate, and no one is standing with them.
I think it’s curious, that Pravda cites Kosovo in its invitation to Israel to ally itself with Russian and other Orthodox Christian states:
http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/conflicts/11-01-2009/106925-israel_serbia-0/
It’s laced liberally with BS, but interesting. I would be much more convinced, if Russia and Serbia supported Israel in the UN instead of the Arabs.
Yes an Islamic takeover will give some or most of them , their comeuppance. The Jon Stewart crowd has got it coming too. It’s always a pity about the Innocent though.
You are both right to some degree, it’s not all one or all the other. I met some snobbish French anti-Semites, they were revolting.
The attitude is like a disease of empowerment. By looking down on others they empower themselves and make themselves feel important. Sexism, nationalism – many other things operate for people in the same way.
There is no public education to make children and people aware of and understand this. Societies should learn from childhood not the symptomatic result – like ethnic prejudice – but what is the root cause of these psychological diseases – the weakness of trying to empower ones ego ( an “inner” unreal thing) by hurting others (an “outer” real thing).
Laura: The world is not full of antisemites.The world is full of people who have fallen in love with their cars, which run on oil, which happens to be derived from Arab and other Muslin countries. Hence little Israel counts for a bag of beans compared to Israel’s adversaries.
There is no antisemitic conspiracy, no grand plan to destroy the Jews- the plan is to ensure that Muslim oil and gas remains readily available to the west.
Anything else is paranoidal pish.
The euros maintain their long, sordid history of treachery against the Jews. The islamic invasion and takeover of the continent is poetic justice.
The anti-Semite is willing to forgo any concern for his or her own self-preservation in order to harm the Jews. That’s how irrational and strong an emotional force anti-Semitism is.