Collaborators then, collaborators now

Collaborators then, collaborators now

The war against the Jews – and against the State of Israel – continues unabated.

For the past year, Israel has been subjected to rocket bombardments directed at its cities including Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. A million Israeli civilians in Southern Israel had their lives disrupted as 8,000 rockets rained down on them since 2005. The Israeli government decided to respond militarily against Hamas which governs Gaza and has its own prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh. 

The Israeli army, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), is made up of reserves that can be called up within 48 hours. Approximately 75,000 Israeli soldiers were sent to the Israeli frontier with Gaza. They didn’t cross the border, relying instead on the Israeli Air Force to wreak havoc. The IDF was successful in killing a significant number of Hamas terrorists including its major battle commander, Ahmed Jabari, responsible for the rocketing barrages, as well as numerous other acts of terrorism. Terrorists in Gaza often surrounded themselves with civilians in an attempt to prevent Israel from responding militarily. Injuries and deaths of Palestinian civilians - children, women and men – are inevitable based on the terrorist actions of using civilians as shields – a war crime. The Israeli Air Force also eliminated a huge armory of rockets that Hamas had received over the years from Iran and Sudan.

The leaders of the western world – France, England, Germany and others – sought to deter the IDF from entering Gaza with troops. The New York Times of November 19 reported an interesting statement from the British Foreign Minister, William Hague. The Times stated:

“William Hague, the British foreign minister, said in a television appearance on Sunday that he and Prime Minister David Cameron ‘stressed to our Israeli counterparts that a ground invasion of Gaza would lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy that they have in this situation.’”

The Israeli government has few friends at the United Nations, primarily the US and Canada. Instead of entering Gaza with its soldiers so as to more effectively destroy the Hamas army and kill more of its leaders it decided, I believe erroneously, not to enter Gaza. What was the result? When the armistice was achieved through the efforts of President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt, himself an Islamist and supporter of Hamas, and those of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Hamas declared a victory. 

What was their stated victory? Keeping the IDF out of Gaza and having the elected leaders of Egypt, Turkey, Quatar and others tour Gaza, praising Hamas and its unwillingness to recognize the State of Israel. What did the Israelis gain by satisfying Hague and Cameron? An enemy strengthened by the Israeli effort to keep casualties down. 

After the armistice was achieved, the citizens of Gaza were visited by Khaled Meshal, their leader who normally resides in Syria or Lebanon. As reported in The New York Times of December 8:

“The long-exiled leader of the militant group Hamas, Khaled Meshal, entered Gaza for the first time on Friday, a symbolically powerful visit that sought to reinforce Hamas’s contention that it was victorious in its eight-day clash with Israel.

His visit resonated on multiple levels, reflecting the many changes that have swept the region since the Tunisian revolution, which began in December 2010 and ignited the Arab Spring uprisings. Mr. Meshal was permitted to cross the Egyptian border now that allies of the Muslim Brotherhood – a cousin of Hamas – have come to power in Egypt. At the same time, Hamas tried to use his visit to reinforce the impression that it is ascendant and no longer a pariah.

On December 9 the Times reported:

“Speaking before tens of thousands of supporters to celebrate the 25thanniversary of the founding of Hamas, Mr. Meshal said the Jewish state would be wiped away through ‘resistance,’ or military action. ‘The state will come from resistance, not negotiation,’ he said. ‘Liberation first, then statehood.’

His voice rising to a shout, Mr. Meshal said: ‘Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concession on any inch of the land.’ He vowed that all Palestinian refugees and their descendants would one day return to their original homes in what is now Israel.

‘We will never recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation, and therefore there is no legitimacy for Israel, no matter how long it will take,’ he said. ‘We will free Jerusalem inch by inch, stone by stone. Israel has no right to be in Jerusalem.’ He also promised Palestinian prisoners held in Israel that they would be freed using the same methods that had worked in the past – the kidnapping of Israelis and Israeli soldiers, like Gilad Shalit, who was released last year in a prisoner exchange after five years as a hostage.

Where were the condemnations of Francois Hollande, the President of France, David Cameron, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and Angela Merkel the Chancellor of Germany? They didn’t think it necessary and their silence was deafening. Yet at the UN Assembly, reported in the Times on December 12: 

“Israel’s blunt-talking foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, gave vent on Wednesday to the government’s anger over recent diplomatic gains by the Palestinians paired with international rebukes for Israel, comparing Israel’s situation to that of Czechoslovakia in 1938 before the Nazi invasion.

Israel was dismayed last month when all the countries of Europe, other than the Czech Republic, supported the Palestinians or abstained when the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to upgrade the status of the Palestinians at the United Nations.

Speaking in English at a conference for foreign diplomats in Israel sponsored by the newspaper The Jerusalem Post, Mr. Lieberman said,

"‘When push comes to shove, many key leaders would be willing to sacrifice Israel without batting an eyelid in order to appease Islamic radicals and ensure quiet for themselves.’ He added, ‘We are not willing to become a second Czechoslovakia and sacrifice vital security interests.’”

What occurred at the UN was another intended Munich and this time the intended victim was Israel. Make no mistake about it. The goal is the ultimate destruction of the Jewish state. The Czech Republic understood this, and it was the only European country not to vote to create a state of Palestine. The state voted on by the UN is without agreed-upon borders and also has two prime ministers - one in Gaza and one on the West Bank. It is an entity where the terrorists of Hamas in Gaza have greater prestige and support of the Palestinians than the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. 

Is it any wonder that the Foreign Minister of Israel, Avigdor Lieberman, denounced the European nations? An Israeli newspaper Haaretzreported that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman “compared the EU’s policy toward Israel to the behavior of Europe toward the Jews during the period of the Holocaust.” 

Remember, it was not just Hitler and the Nazis who ordered the Jews rounded up and taken to concentration camps. Many of the countries on the European mainland and their people assisted the Nazis in sending the Jews to the death camps. They collaborated then and they are collaborating now. 

The settlements of Jews on the West Bank that the European countries and the US denounce are there to protect Jerusalem and the State of Israel when the Palestinians and their allies attack Israel. Israel does not expect the troops of any other country to come to its defense when the Arab armies attack as they have on prior occasions. It will depend for its security and survival on the Jewish citizens and soldiers in those settlements to give it time to marshal its reserves. They also believe in God.

The Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas has refused to sit at a peace conference without preconditions for the last two years. President Abbas may desire peace, but he knows that if he were to negotiate a peace treaty with Israel, the Muslim Jihadists worldwide as well as his neighbors on the West Bank and Gaza, supporters of Hamas, would kill him. The European leaders know that but continue to blame Israel for a lack of peace when they know better. Shame on them.

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/collaborators-then-collaborators-now