|
|
|
Jewish World Review January 28, 2010 / 14 Shevat 5770 Enlightened nations of the world are on a coffee-break from enlightenment By Caroline B. Glick
So declared Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as he spoke at
Auschwitz-Birkenau on Wednesday, the 65th anniversary of its liberation.
Netanyahu used his speech at the notorious death camp to nudge what he
referred to as "the enlightened nations of the world," to recognize that
"murderous evil" has to be stopped as early as possible to prevent it from
achieving its aims. Unfortunately, the events of the past week show clearly
that evil is on the march, and "the enlightened nations of the world" are on
a coffee-break from enlightenment.
As Netanyahu addressed the world from the site of the most prolific genocide
factory in human history, at the place where over a million Jews were
gassed, starved, beaten, raped, frozen, shot and hanged and then burned in
ovens, Iran's leaders were declaring loudly that they intend to finish what
the Nazis started. They will destroy the Jewish people.
Iran's dictator supremo Ali Khamenei used a photo op with Mauritania's
President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz — who cut his own country's diplomatic
ties with Israel last January -- to renew his pledge to commit yet another
Holocaust. As he put it, "Surely, the day will come when the nations of the
region will witness the destruction of the Zionist regime… When the
destruction happens will depend on how the Islamic nations approach the
issue."
And as he spoke, "the enlightened nations of the world's" ability to deny
that the Iranian regime is building a nuclear arsenal was finally and
utterly wiped away. On Monday Germany's Der Speigel reported that evidence
gleaned from document intercepts and from the testimony of two senior
Iranian defectors who were involved in Iran's nuclear program, proves beyond
a reasonable doubt that Iran's nuclear program is not a peaceful one. The
Iranians are designing and building nuclear warheads for their Shihab-3
ballistic missiles. According to a summary of the findings now circulating
through the halls of power, Iran will have the wherewithal to build nuclear
warheads by 2012.
So the Der Spiegel report showed that Iran is developing the capacity to
carry out a second Holocaust in under a hundred years. And yet, in the face
of their sure knowledge that evil is on the march, as they did 70 years ago,
the "enlightened nations" of Europe are siding with evil against its
would-be victims.
On a popular level, as Sunday's release of the Jewish Agency's annual report
on global anti-Semitism documented, there were more anti-Semitic attacks in
Europe in 2009 than there had been in any single year since the Holocaust.
The report stated that the attacks were carried out by Jew haters on both
the Left and the Right.
Europe's anti-Semites wasted no time in proving the report was accurate.
Monday Polish Catholic Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek said that Jews have
"expropriated" the Holocaust as "a propaganda weapon." Jews, he claimed,
"enjoy good press because they have powerful financial means behind them,
enormous power and the unconditional backing of the United States and this
favors a certain arrogance that I find unbearable."
Then we have the political alliance of Leftist anti-Semites with Muslim
anti-Semites. Together they not only attack Jews, they provide political
cover for expanding those attacks by rejecting Israel's right to exist and
justifying violent attacks against Jews outside Israel as the logical
outcome of their politically correct anger at Israel for refusing to destroy
itself. Case in point is Ilmar Reepalu, the mayor of Malmo, Sweden.
Malmo is one of the most dangerous places for Jews in Europe. The city's
small Jewish population is fleeing. The situation in Malmo was graphically
demonstrated last March when Israel's tennis stars Amir Haddad and Andy Ram
faced off against Swedish rivals at a Davis Cup tournament in Malmo and
Swedish authorities closed their game to the public. Malmo's Muslim
residents and their post-Christian partners on the Left threatened to attack
them. Malmo's authorities didn't think it was their responsibility to
protect their Israeli guests. So Haddad and Ram were forced to play to an
empty stadium.
Reepalu then blamed Malmo's Jews for their victimization by his fellow
Leftists and his Muslim comrades. As far as he is concerned, the Jews
brought the violence on themselves last March when they responded to
Haddad's and Ram's treatment by holding a demonstration supporting Israel.
In his view, Malmo's Jews need to separate themselves away from Israel, not
support it.
Since the Holocaust old-style right wing anti-Semites in Europe have had a
hard time getting political traction for their desire to see Jews suffer.
But by conflating Jews with Israel, their colleagues on the Left have made
sticking it to the Jews, our state and our supporters the easiest way to
score political points. So it was that in her first speech as the EU's new
foreign policy chief, Britain's Catherine Ashton went out of her way to
condemn Israel for building in Jerusalem, closing its border with
Hamas-controlled Gaza and defending itself from Palestinian terrorists in
Judea and Samaria.
As for Israel's friends, they are hounded, driven out of Europe and where
possible placed on trial. Dutch MP Geert Wilders, the head of Holland's
Freedom Party is one of Israel's greatest supporters in Europe. Today
Wilders is on trial for publically criticizing what he views as the endemic
anti-Semitism of the Koran.
Against the backdrop of the persistence of right-wing Jew hatred, and the
politically ascendant Red-Green alliance of anti-Semites, it makes sense
that Europe will not raise a finger to prevent another Holocaust.
And so, not surprisingly, in the wake the Der Spiegel report, the EU's
foreign ministers got together and decided not to support any new sanctions
against Iran — unless they are passed by the UN Security Council. Since
Europe's foreign ministers all know full well the UN Security Council will
not pass sanctions against Iran because veto-wielding China has announced
that it will veto any sanctions against Iran, this week the EU's foreign
ministers got together and said their okay with another Holocaust.
With Europe out, and with "enlightened" Asian, African and South American
countries never really in the game, the only "enlightened" country that
might be expected to stop murderous evil before it can carry out its aims is
the United States. But unfortunately, like the Europeans, the Americans
don't feel like being responsible. President Barack Obama, his
administration and many of his fellow Democrats would rather take on Israel.
This week 54 Democratic members of Congress wrote Obama a letter asking him
to apply pressure on Israel to remove its restrictions on the import of
goods -- including dual use goods like construction materials -- to
Hamas-controlled Gaza. Never mind that under US law it is legally
problematic to provide any aid, (including the $300 million Obama has
pledged) to Gaza in light of the fact that it is controlled by a terrorist
organization.
For its part, the administration apparently believes that there is no reason
to seek the overthrow of Hamas simply because the US is required by US law
and binding UN Security Council resolutions to do so. The US Treasury
Department has reportedly just removed all but one Hamas official from its
list of known terrorists and so paved the way for Hamas to receive funding
from Europe.
As for Israel, during his trip here this week, Obama's Middle East envoy
George Mitchell came up with a revolutionary new idea. In the face of
Palestinian intransigence, Mitchell introduced the earthshaking concept of
pressuring Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians.
This week Mitchell asked Israel to stop all of its counter-terror operations
in Judea and Samaria, and allow Palestinian forces to operate not only in
the Palestinian areas, but in predominantly Israeli areas as well.
Specifically, Mitchell asked Israel to allow Palestinian forces to deploy in
what the arguably defunct Oslo agreements refer to as Area C, where the
Palestinian Authority has no security authority whatsoever.
When it comes to Iran, the Obama administration behaves as though the jury
is still out on whether the mullahs are even seeking nuclear weapons.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last Thursday that Iran might face
some tough statements from the world if it continues to refuse to be
appeased by the Obama White House, although she couldn't say whether any
actual steps would be taken to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons
which she wouldn't acknowledge the mullahs are developing.
And at his State of the Union address on Wednesday, Obama himself made clear
that the US will do nothing to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
As far as Obama is concerned, the nuclear arsenal in most urgent need of
evisceration is the US's nuclear arsenal.
All of this just goes to show that at the end of the day, now when the chips
are down, there is only one "enlightened" nation in the world that may
actually do something to prevent the advance of murderous evil. And Israel
unfortunately is of two minds on the issue.
On the one hand, we have Netanyahu, who is clearly focused on preventing
another Holocaust of Jewry. But on the other hand, we have Defense Minister
Ehud Barak, who on Tuesday claimed that the absence of peace with the
Palestinians - not Iran - is the greatest threat that Israel faces today. As
he put it, "The lack of defined boundaries within Israel, and not an Iranian
bomb, is the greatest threat to our future."
Barak's outrageous pronouncement is a succinct encapsulation of the great
aspiration of the Israeli Left. If he could only be right, then Israel would
be able to singlehandedly solve all the problems of the region and be
immediately adored by the likes of the EU and the Obama administration just
by making itself smaller.
So with the scourge of moral and strategic blindness rampant not only in
Europe and America, but within his own government, Netanyahu rapidly
approaches his moment of truth.
In what will undoubtedly be the most fateful decision of his life, he will
have to decide whether Iran will become a nuclear power, or whether Israel,
standing alone, will prevent it from becoming a nuclear power. Was his
declaration of "Never Again," at Auschwitz just the bloviating of yet
another "enlightened" leader who lacks the courage of his convictions? Or
was it a solemn vow that Zionism's promise will be kept?
Interested in a private Judaic studies instructor — for free? Let us know by clicking here.
JWR contributor Caroline B. Glick is the senior Middle East Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC and the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post. Comment by clicking here.
| ||||||||||
