J'Accuse

After the European Parliament decided to recommend that sanctions be activated against Israel because it dared to defend itself, and at the same time the European Union has declared its alignment with arch-terrorist Arafat, one can only reminisce on the sad history of European millennial anti-Semitism. It has been more than a century ago that the world outside Europe was shaken by the Dreyfus affair that was concocted by official France against that Jewish Captain of its armed forces, and it has been more than half a century that most Europeans collaborated with the Germans in detaining, torturing and sending to the death camps millions of their Jews.

And now, once again. President Bush has determined the definition of terrorist: anyone who indiscriminately attacks civilians to attain a political purpose, and anyone who supports, finances or harbors terrorists are themselves terrorists. There is no doubt in the minds of anyone that corrupt and autocratic (yes, he was "elected" but not for life, and after the 1995 "elections" none were permitted) Arafat pursues the road of terrorism (even the Europeans and the UN have called upon him to desist), but the European countries are themselves working hard to fall within that category:

I accuse the Europeans of supporting politically and diplomatically arch-terrorist Arafat and his gang, and of willing to perpetuate his corrupt rule, his destructive record - first in Jordan (1970), then in Lebanon (1982) and now in Israel (2002). Conversely, for lambasting democratic and valiant Israel who has showed self-restraint for years, absorbed hundreds of casualties of terrorism (a thousand since Oslo and 450 since the Intifadah), made far-reaching concessions for peace, and accepted the Mitchell and Tenet Plans in an attempt to put an end to hostility. Only when the Passover Massacre and its sequels raised the number of killed innocent civilians to 40 in one week and 100 in one month, did Israel move to eradicate the infra-structure of terror. And instead of lending their all-out support to this just and overdue demarche, the Europeans decided once again to throw their lot with terrorists and tyrants, and sell off democracy and the right of self-defense (Remember Munich?)

I accuse the Europeans of financing terrorism. They have been flooding the Palestinians with Euros, which instead of raising the deficient standard of living and investing in the much needed infrastructure, have contributed to educate Palestinian children for hatred, to manufacture and smuggle in illegal weapons and maintain an armed force the double of what was agreed upon in Oslo, and to accustom the Palestinians to live on hand-outs rather than encourage a culture of productivity, creativity and peace. In fact, since the European Union has taken the Palestinian Authority under its wings, the per capita income was halved, unemployment doubled and bloodshed increased manifold, compared with the time of Israeli "occupation" which was the result of Arab aggression against her in 1967, not the reason thereof.

I accuse the Europeans of harboring terrorism, not only in protecting Arafat, but in turning a blind eye to the Arab and Muslim populations in their midst, who have been rampaging Jewish holy places, attacking Jewish school-children and worshippers, desecrating cemeteries and terrifying an entire helpless Jewish population which is not allowed to take up arms and defend itself. Everyone can imagine how all those champions of human rights would have reacted, had a church, let alone a mosque, been burned instead of the hundreds of Jewish sites that were attacked. Unlike the crowds of incited Muslims who have destroyed, libeled, shouted, rampaged, attacked and burned, the intimidated law-abiding Jewish population has behaved with dignity and low-profile, waiting in vain for the authorities to act. And exactly as they do with the Jewish state which is a nuisance to their perceived interest in the Arab world, their Jewish population is sacrificed for the electoral benefits of the much more numerous Muslim community. But that will not stand for long, because those the Europeans allow to turn against others, will end up turning against them.

I accuse the Europeans of not only aiding terrorism while paying a cynical and hypocritical lip-service to the "war against terrorism", a notion that only the Anglo-Saxon world has been truly committed to, but also of calumniating the Jewish state, as they did of old to their Jews, thus promoting anti-semitism in their own countries, masquerading as "anti-Zionism". They accuse the Jews, who are the victims of murder as the "murderers", "understand" and justify the real murderers as the "poor, destitute, occupied and frustrated", condemn the Israeli measured and careful punitive operations as "aggression" and "excess of force", and call upon Israel to desist from destroying terrorism so that it can be pursued unfettered. One wonders what would the Europeans say if the Israelis acted exactly like Palestinians and blew up civilian buses, crowded restaurants and busy streets. Would that not be excessive?

The people of Israel in particular, and the Jews at large, especially in these days of the Holocaust Memorial services throughout the world, relive the millennial feeling of persecution, but today they have a state to defend their cause, indeed their lives. And today's Israel would rather stand up for its life and the life of its people (something no one cared for throughout European history), even if it is unjustly condemned, blamed and calumniated, than be "magnificent and forlorn" (to pick up what Churchill said of Poland that was left to the merci of the Nazis by those same Europeans), and alive in spite of its detractors.