When European hate backfires

Thanks Europe, I just added another one to the list.

As I was sitting on a low stool Tisha Be’av mid-morning reciting the lamentations commemorating bloody injustices – (pogroms, massacres, the destruction of Two Temples, the Holocaust etc.) against the Jewish people over the past 2000+ years, I lost concentration and decided to check out the latest news on my iphone (sorry G-d).

Low and behold, on the same Hebrew date that London expelled all of its Jews in 1290, as did Spain in 1492, or in modern times when the Nazis began the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942, Ha’aretz published a report saying that the E.U. has declared that:

“Any Israeli entity seeking funding from or cooperation with the European Union will have to submit a declaration stating that the entity has no direct or indirect links to the (so-called ed.) West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights, according to the new EU guidelines.

The mind can’t help but envision a modern day Joseph Mengele, sitting in some European Capital, most likely Brussels, toiling over stacks of Israeli funding requests, putting some on the desk to the left for approval in order to support the ‘good Jews’, while the other stack of papers he crumples up and tosses in the waste-bin to the right, so as not to help the ‘bad (settler) Jews’.

Dani Dayan, the new “Ambassador” to the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria shared a similar vision in a twitter post following the annoucement.

@dandayan “How will selection be done on youth delegations? A German will say: Tel Aviv to the right, East Jlem to the left? Or it will be a Polish job?”

Of course this is a racist and discriminatory policy against a specific group of people – the Jews, based on their religion and their geography.  The EU should be condemned for acting in this manner, even while I admit it’s not all that surprising.

But other than an expression of pure hatred, will the newly enforced policy actually change anything on the ground? From what I’ve read the EU has historically never recognized Israel’s rights to Judea, Samaria, the Golan, and parts of Jerusalem.

One area which it may have an effect on however is the non-existent so called ‘peace process’ between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. And believe it or not, here is where I draw my optimism.

Numerous analysts insist that Europe’s new ban further reduces chances of drawing the PA back to negotiations.

What’s so bad about that?

For 20 years Israel has been negotiating on and off with the Palestinian Authority and for 20 years, Israel has paid the price in spilt Jewish blood.

If some wretched, yet non-binding declaration by the wannabe- powerful E.U. will actually push off the talks further – then as they say in Yiddush –  GAY GA ZINTA HATE (ironic for let them go do their own thing, or better yet, go get lost!).

We know that the PA demands include till this day the 1967 borders (really the 49 armistice lines), dismantling all communities in Judea and Samaria, as well as the so-called right of return of ‘refugees.’

But no Israeli government left, right, or center has ever been willing to accept such terms.

So what’s the point of talking?

In fact, once the talks break down, and they no doubt will, as all talks have since Oslo, the Arabs are ALREADY hinting at a return to violence as their parting gift.

Three PA leaders including PA Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat, The Mayor of Shechem Ghassan Shaka’a, and Former PA Prisoner-Affairs Minister Ashraf Al-Ajrami (who made his remarks ironically at the Knesset. Why he was even allowed in the building is a subject for another column), recently admitted (essentially threatened) that violence is on the table should Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts at restarting negotiations fail.

So to Europe I say in the infamous words of one Bart Simpson “Get Bent.”

But how ironic that your intent to pressure Israel to the table in order to force even more concessions towards those who in reality seek Israel’s destruction has just backfired!

To that I say – job well done.