If you are in any doubt as to the bias and double standard Europeans apply against Israel, just read the farewell message of Miguel Moratinos, outgoing European Union Representative to the Middle East Peace Process, published in The Jerusalem Post on July 1.
Moratinos had the hutzpa to tell Israelis to "wake up and shake off their die-hard prejudice which sometimes prevents them from perceiving reality." This on behalf of a continent that persecuted and killed Jews for centuries. Moratinos acts as though Ehud Barak's offers to Yasser Arafat missed the European radar screen. In what can only be described as mind-boggling gibberish he patronizingly advises us to "stop the occupation" and provide Palestinians with their national homeland.
It would seem he is unaware that the majority of Israelis have no desire to rule even one more day over Arabs if our security could be guaranteed. And, to top it off, Moratinos has the gall to tell a nation desperately yearning for peace that it should "wake up and treasure the Hebrew word shalom"!
Like most European politicians, Moratinos appears oblivious to the reality that Israel today is the only state in the world whose neighbors seek its annihilation. After all that has happened these past three years, it is obscene that Moratinos still seeks to bolster Arafat's standing when it is plain that Arafat has never had any intention of consummating a peace settlement with Israel. Alas, Moratinos not only continues supporting Arafat, the Europeans even refuse to ban Hamas because it also conducts "social welfare" activities.
When Moratinos tells us to "wake up" we are reminded how the Europeans condemned Israel for its attempted assassination of Hamas leader, Dr. Abdel Rantisi, a pediatrician who transforms children into suicide bombers.
And, when Moratinos tells us to "wake up" he stands in line with European colleagues like Javier Solana, the European representative to the Middle East. Solana has chat sessions with Hamas's Sheikh Yassin and insists this is perfectly in order because he is cautioning Yassin against suicide bombings.
Yet this same Solana, who four years ago as NATO secretary-general personally endorsed the use of cluster bombs on densely populated residential suburbs of Belgrade, now repeatedly condemns us for the targeted assassinations of those directly engaged in trying to blow apart our civilians in buses, restaurants, and malls. Perhaps Moratinos could explain why the Europeans, who invest so much energy in condemning Israel, remained deathly silent while millions of innocent civilians were being butchered in the Congo, the Sudan, Iraq, and Chechnya.
Moratinos's admonishment to us not to bracket criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism is spurious considering that articles are being published daily in European papers challenging the legitimacy of Israel's existence, comparing Israelis to Nazis, and calling for anti-Israel boycotts.
The truth is that we are confused as to what motivates the double standard and bias Europeans employ against us. Perhaps post-modernism blinds them to identifying evil, even when it confronts them in the face.
How else to explain the moral equivalency Europeans employ by bracketing the actions of soldiers who try to protect civilians with the ghouls seeking an early entry to paradise by blowing themselves up amidst our women and children?
It takes a myopic delusion not to recognize the hatred that suffuses Palestinian society at all levels, resembling the evil with which the Nazis indoctrinated an entire generation. How else to classify kindergarten children being groomed to murder their neighbors? Or mothers sanctifying children who blow themselves up as "martyrs?" I would ask Moratinos: If that is not evil, what is?
WE ARE now undergoing yet another effort to achieve a negotiated peace settlement. Regrettably there are ominous parallels between the road map and the Oslo Accords which proved such a cruel illusion.
Europeans should understand that we will not subject ourselves to a repeat performance of Palestinian words of good will unaccompanied by action on the ground, to demands on us to make real concessions without genuine reciprocity. But we have pledged to do our utmost to bring about a constructive outcome. Despite a d j -vu feeling about Mahmoud Abbas and his nice words, it is too early to write the road map off entirely. And it goes without saying that if progress toward a peace settlement is achieved it will be enthusiastically welcomed by the vast majority of Israelis.
Moratinos alleges that the Europeans and "most of the players on the international scene wish to support Israel." Would that were true. Unfortunately, the behavior of the Europeans in recent years only confirms that we remain "a people that dwelleth alone." The sad but harsh reality is that if Moratinos represents our European friends, we need no enemies.
Perhaps it is high time for the Europeans themselves to "wake up" and stop meddling, end the efforts to resurrect Arafat and enable the Americans to proceed without interference. The Europeans would do well to look in the mirror and ask why they have behaved so appallingly to the only democracy in the region whose creation was due, at least in part, to the horrors imposed on Jews by their forefathers only half-a-century ago.
The writer is senior vice president of the World Jewish Congress ([email protected]).
