Appeasement and Economic Sanctions

by Yoram Ettinger

According to Winston Churchill, "an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

The U.S. administration is leading the easing of economic sanctions against -- and the legitimization of -- the regime of Iran’s apocalyptic, almost-nuclear ayatollahs and mullahs, the allies of North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and other anti-U.S. rogue regimes. They are the chief sponsors of anti-U.S. Islamic terrorism, the role model of anti-U.S. incitement and non-compliance with agreements, double-talk, repression, public executions, state-sponsored terrorism and subversion against the pro-U.S. oil-producing Arab states. 

Simultaneously, and against the will of the American people and the U.S. Congress, the White House and the State Department imply a not-so-subtle support of supposed European economic sanctions against the fallible Jewish state, which is the most reliable, stable, predictable, capable, democratic and unconditional ally of the U.S. in the Middle East and beyond. Israel is the only country whose alliance with the U.S. is based on shared Judeo-Christian values, the foundation of Western democracy and American morality.

Contrary to the state of mind of the American people and the U.S. Congress, the U.S. administration has not warned anti-Israel Europeans of the dire consequences should they resort to sanctions against the Jewish state -- a besieged island of Western democracy surrounded and assaulted by an ocean of anti-Western Islamic tyrannies. Instead, the current U.S. policy -- shaped largely by a foreign policy establishment which courted Hafez Assad, Bashar Assad, Saddam Hussein, Khomeini, Arafat, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood -- provides a tailwind to misguided Europeans, and fuels unrealistic Palestinian expectations, radicalism and violence.

Western governments have chosen to pressure and threaten the Jewish state -- the only Middle Eastern country where Jews, Christians and Muslims enjoy civil liberties and Muslim women benefit from equal opportunities -- while placating and appeasing the regime of Mahmoud Abbas:

*The author of the Palestinian Authority death penalty for Arabs selling land to Israeli Jews, while Israel uproots Jews who settle disputed land

*The ethnic-cleanser who reiterates opposition to the existence of Jewish communities in the proposed Palestinian state, while the Jewish state extends freedom of religion, press, expression, assembly and association to the 1.7 million Israeli Arabs, who -- including most east Jerusalem Arabs -- prefer Israeli to Palestinian citizenship

*The founding father of Western-bankrolled Palestinian hate education, who heralds suicide bombers, using Western financial aid to provide monthly allowances to families of Palestinian terrorists

*The head of a repressive and corrupt regime, nicknamed, by Judea and Samaria Arabs, “Sodom and Gomorrah” and “Mr. 20%” (kickbacks)

*The liquidator of the ancient Christian communities in Bethlehem, Beit Jallah, Ramallah and Beit Sakhour. There are more Christian refugees in Belize, Central America, than there are Christians left in Beit Jallah. From a Christian majority in Bethlehem before the 1993 arrival of Abbas, the Christian community has been reduced to a 15% minority 

*A graduate of KGB training and Moscow University (Ph.D. thesis -- Holocaust denial); the coordinator of PLO ties with the Communist Bloc; an ally of Russia, China and North Korea; the loyal deputy of Arafat, systematically betraying the trust of Egypt (1950s), Syria (1966), Jordan (1970), Lebanon (1970-1982) and Kuwait (collaboration with Saddam’s August, 1990 invasion of Kuwait) through subversion and terrorism

*A systematic violator of most agreements with Israel since 1993, when Israel imported some 70,000 PLO terrorists from Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Syria, Lebanon and Tunisia and provided them with control over 40% of Judea and Samaria and all of Gaza. The Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate, Jordan nor Egypt ever allowed this when they controlled that area. Mahmoud Abbas reciprocated with unprecedented hate education, terrorism and non-compliance

The current U.S. administration, however, has chosen to pressure the Jewish state and placate Iran and the Palestinian Authority.

Regardless, the ideological and strategic fabric of the mutually beneficial, win-win U.S.-Israel relationship -- based on shared values, mutual threats and joint interests -- will withstand appeasement and cynicism. But, vital U.S. interests could be severely compromised unless the U.S. heeds the following advice of Churchill: "This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup, which will be proffered to us year by year, unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigor, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the old times."

Yoram Ettinger

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=7303

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