by Dr. Haim Shine
In January 1904, just a
few months before he died, an infirm Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl traveled to
Italy to persuade the Italian king and the pope to support the Zionist
cause, highlighting the surging tide of anti-Semitism inundating Europe.
The pope had expected Herzl to bend down on one knee and to kiss his
extended hand, but Herzl, a proud Jew, refused.
The pope explained to
Herzl that the Holy See would neither accept a Jewish entity in the Holy
Land, nor the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem. An
independent Jewish state with its capital in Jerusalem blatantly
contradicted the Christian faith, as it would have refuted
Christianity's replacement of Judaism. The Catholic leadership refused
to condemn anti-Semitism, and throughout the 20th century, it continued
to wage a consistent campaign denouncing Zionism.
Even today, several
European countries are unwilling to reconcile with a strong, independent
Israel ruling over Jerusalem. The U.K., France and Italy summoned
Israeli ambassadors to protest Israel's decision to build residential
units in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. The British will probably never
forgive us for the fact that just a handful of resistance fighters
managed to bring the British empire down on its knees; the Catholic
French will most likely never get over our resounding victory in the
Six-Day War, which shattered then-President Charles de Gaulle's
religious faith, and the Italians are doing their best to erase former
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's legacy -- he was a staunch Israel
supporter.
Protesting construction
over the Green Line is kind of like playing pretend. The Europeans do
not really care about a few homes in Beit El or Yitzhar. The main source
of contention is Jerusalem and development there, but the Europeans
have to understand that the overwhelming majority of Israelis would
never relinquish even a sliver of territory in Jerusalem, in the same
way that the English, French and Italians would never agree to concede
an alleyway in London, Paris or Rome, even if most of its residents were
Muslim immigrants.
These European
countries could easily win the Nobel Prize for Machiavellian hypocrisy.
They bear a message of peace while simultaneously hindering progress in
the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The European Union has been
throwing sticks in the spokes of the American peace carriage. Certain EU
members have even been collaborating with Hamas and radical Islamist
groups, attempting to thwart the diplomatic process. So even if
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas wanted to reach some sort
of arrangement, which is highly doubtful, the EU's one-sided stance
would cause him to harden his line. He has no reason to concede
anything. If the peace process fails to bear fruit, Abbas will get
Europe's full backing to crush Israel through international
organizations and to paralyze its economy with endless boycotts.
When former Prime Minister David
Ben-Gurion declared in 1948 that "the Jewish nation has risen up in the
land of Israel -- with national independence," he was clarifying that
the Jewish people would never again dance to the sound of flat music.
Dr. Haim Shine
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=7081
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment