RUTHFULLY YOURS

At Tel Aviv University on Monday, Baroness Caroline Cox, a cross-bench member of the British House of Lords, gave a talk sponsored by the Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security and the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies, run by Martin Sherman.

A passionate defender of human rights and the rule of law, Cox has spent the bulk of her career fighting forces that threaten to undermine Western democracy in general, and that of her country in particular. The focus of her lecture was the spread of political Islam in the U.K. and Africa, a phenomenon that has taken up much of her parliamentary and humanitarian work.

Though her pro-Israel positions are well-known (she is a co-founder of the One Jerusalem organization and co-president of the Jerusalem Summit), she purposely left the Jewish state out of the discussion. Nevertheless, she made a point of mentioning the symbolic relevance of her topic to the timing of her speech, which happened to fall on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Her message was that jihad is being waged through an Islamist infiltration of the political, cultural, legal and economic systems of non-Muslim countries. It is being accomplished, she said, by pushing to have Shariah law written into, if not replace, the law of the land; by manipulating democracy to destroy it; by investing in educational institutions and making it impossible for anyone to criticize their teachings; and — as in the case of African countries — by preventing anyone who does not convert to Islam from getting a job or receiving government aid, including food for starving children.

The list goes on, and it is as ugly as the honor killings and female genital mutilation practiced by Shariah-abiding citizens and accepted by Western apologists. Even more shocking is the extent to which Britain has willingly resigned itself to this barbarism. Indeed, recounted Cox, the situation is so “schizophrenic” that while bigamy is prohibited in the U.K., polygamy among its Muslim citizens is accepted as a religious-cultural norm.

This, she explained, is not only dangerous for Britain; it is devastating for Muslims seeking the protection of British law. They are abandoned by the system in the name of diversity, and sent to Shariah courts to settle their issues.

Shariah, thus, is managing to thrive in the U.K., thanks to concessions made by the establishment to an ever-growing Islamic population. And it’s no wonder, with Muslim men being left to marry multiple wives with whom they sire dozens of children.

Admitting that educating and rallying her peers and the public against this crack in civilized society is a Sisyphean task, she concluded by urging that we all tell ourselves, “I cannot do everything, but I must not do nothing.”

Such an appeal often falls on deaf ears. Ignorance is partly to blame. Then there’s the fear — of being accused of Islamophobia on the one hand, and of violent repercussions on the other. It is far easier to empathize with the enemy and confront a less daunting culprit.

Which brings us, of course, to Israel.

One key element of global jihad is propaganda aimed at turning lies into truth and vice versa. Trained by the Soviets masters of this art, Arab-Muslim apparatchiks have taken it to a whole new level. Their success lies in their two-pronged self-portrayal as downtrodden victims of Western imperialism and as destined victors against the “infidels.” Chief among these are the “Great Satan” (America) and the “Small Satan” (Israel).

That Europe’s response is to sell its soul to appease the beast is bad enough. But when the administration in Washington follows suit, the sense among the sane is that even science fiction couldn’t do justice to the horror of it all.

Yes, President Barack Obama is looking the other way during bogus negotiations with Iran, thereby enabling the Islamic republic to develop nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry is blaming Israel for not acting in a similar fashion with the Palestinian Authority.

Not only has Kerry chided Israel on several occasions for its inability to persuade the PA to engage in peace talks toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, but he has made public statements to that effect. Buoyed by the moral relativism that the State Department has been applying to “both sides,” the PA signed a treaty with Hamas.

Fuming, Kerry outdid himself on Friday. During a closed meeting of the Trilateral Commission — a tape of which was obtained and released by the Daily Beast — Kerry told officials from Europe, Russia and Japan that in the absence of a two-state solution, Israel “winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens, or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state.”

Though Kerry now says he regrets using the word “apartheid,” it was no mere slip of the tongue. Rather, it revealed the depth of his hostility to Israel. It also served as proof of the power of propaganda. When repeated often enough, such a blatant falsehood can even roll easily off the lips of the world’s highest-ranking diplomat.

Baroness Cox would not be the least bit surprised.

Ruthie Blum is the author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.'”