Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Douglas Murray Nails The European Union's Double Standards

To quote a current report by the Guardian's Middle East editor (who needless to say is no friend to Israel):
"EU governments have agreed to list the armed wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist group because of concerns over its activities in Europe. But the EU ignored pressure from the US and Israel to ban the Lebanese organisation outright, allowing contacts with its political representatives.
Monday's decision by EU foreign ministers came after months of wrangling between member states, who needed to agree the ban unanimously. William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, said the move would not harm European or UK relations with the Lebanese government....
The British ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Fletcher, said on Twitter that the EU's blacklisting of Hezbollah would not affect dealings with its political wing."
This European Union snub to Israel (for an in-depth analysis of what lies behind it see here) follows closely, of course, upon the EU's decision regarding settlements.

The latter has inspired that young British prophet for our time, the admirably courageous and prescient Douglas Murray, to note that the EU, which has acted so punitively towards Israel, has "has full, if not fawning, diplomatic and trade relations" with a number of countries involved in border disputes.

He points out that "what makes the EU's latest double-standard even more delicious is that the occupied island of Cyprus is actually a member of the EU," which might therefore be expected to take a close interest in the fact of its occupation, but does not.

Writes Murray:
"The northern part of Cyprus has been illegally annexed for the last four decades by Turkey. It is not as though Turkey shares a border with the island. Nor does it have -- as Israel has with the West Bank -- any legitimate historical, political or other territorial claims on the northern part of the island. There is no security reason for Turkey to sustain its occupation, as there is an obvious need for Israel to have defensible borders that do not permit terrorists from the West Bank to fire rockets into Israel, as do its friends in post-disengagement Gaza or southern Lebanon.
But unlike Israel and the West Bank, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus is not even a disputed matter. It was certainly not some understandable territorial gain made after aggressive war waged by Greece. It was outright theft -- an annexation: state terrorism. The entire international community recognizes it as such. Yet in 2013 not only is Turkey not an enemy of the EU, and not only is it a country which enjoys complete diplomatic and trade relations with the EU, it is a country which many leading members and officials of the EU actually want to promote into a full member-state of the EU.
Into the fifth decade of Turkish occupation of Cyprus, there is still no serious dictating by the EU to Turkey over what it must do about northern Cyprus. Turkey does not find itself under even the most remote international pressure finally to disengage from its illegal occupation of the northern part of Cyprus. And that is because for some inexplicable reason the EU does not consider it imperative that Turkey should disengage from the illegal occupation of an EU member state. It does not consider that the future of any region depends on this action. Yet it does persist, even now, with its view that it can dictate to Israel about its borders. And that it can have a constructive role in doing so. Of all the fallacies of the EU, that is surely the topmost."
Read all of Douglas Murray's article here

3 comments:

  1. I was just about to send that to you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A key difference with Cyprus is that when the Turkish army expelled Cypriot Greeks they took their real estate. And in the intervening years they've made quite a business of selling them to EU pensioners. In fact the largest group of people who bought stolen homes from the Turkish army in Cyprus is the Brits. And no one in the EU is going to throw wealthy fat white non Jewish pensioners out of their homes, even if it's a vacation home. The expelled Cypriot Greeks would of course have to sue all the illegal occupants individually while demonstrating they own legal title. And it would have to happen in an EU court which no doubt would defend the current occupants under the rubric that because the rest of Cyprus is an EU state, these expelled persons can't legally attain 'refugee' status or any other status that would legitimize their own claims. And their efforts of course would fail since the current occupants would simply point to Turkey as the seller. Turkey isn't an EU state so the courts have no jurisdiction.

    Isn't international law wonderful?

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  3. The BBC's Jim Muir reports dodgily re Hezbollah:
    http://bbcwatch.org/2013/07/23/bbc-tweaks-hizballah-statement-promotes-its-conspiracy-theories/

    ReplyDelete

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