RUTHFULLY YOURS

Representatives of more than 70 countries and organisations met in Paris last weekend to discuss and map out a way to a two-state resolution of the war between the Arabs and the Israelis, a war which the Arabs started in 1948 – the day after the Declaration of Independence by the newborn Jewish State. This is not the first time Jews are being betrayed by their ‘friends’.

This conference was not conducted in the French spa town Evian-les-Bains, where, in the Hotel Royal, on 6-15 of July, 1938, representatives of 32 countries slammed the door to safety in the face of desperate German Jewish refugees, under deadly threat from the Nazis. Every delegate rose to express sympathy for their plight, but no country, save the tiny Dominican Republic, offered refuge. The United States and Britain, citing economic concerns, were the undisputed leaders in refusing to admit people on the verge of the Nazi genocide. The other countries followed suit.

The significance of the Evian conference’s outcome, which astonished and delighted Adolf Hitler, was that it gave the Nazis carte blanche to conduct the Holocaust. The Evian conference conclusively demonstrated that no matter what Hitler did, Jews had neither powerful friends they could draw upon, nor could they resist his plans.

Despite the displeasure of some who feel that Jewish insistence on remembering the Holocaust is ‘too distressing’, history cannot be ignored nor forgotten. It certainly cannot be forgotten by the Jewish people, whose existence was threatened to the point of extinction.

The physical existence of the Jews has been threatened many times. It was threatened throughout their long, blood-spattered history in Europe: by Russian pogroms and the English, Spanish and Portuguese expulsions; by the 1506 massacre of Portuguese Jews in Lisbon; by the German gas chambers and by Polish hatred; by Hungarian deportations and Ukrainian massacres; by Vichy France’s collaboration with Hitler in expediting the transfer of Jews to the extermination camps; by the Lithuanian murder squads and many, many, many others, equally enthusiastic in manifesting their antisemitic hatred; and by the British Navy blockade, even after the horrors of the Holocaust, of the Palestine mandate.

And yet, and yet, even in the darkest hours of Jewish suffering, there were some decent people in every nation who helped Jews, placing themselves and their dear ones in mortal danger. That, along with the Jewish belief in One G-d, has confirmed the Jewish dream and the Jewish conviction that no matter what, there are people who refuse to behave like  animals, and who deserve the high distinction of being called human – righteous amongst the nations.

Now, Jewish existence is threatened again. The so-called ‘friends’ of the Jews require, nay, insist that they live with their murderers and tormentors, whose antisemitic hatred knows no bounds, who openly and officially, as a matter of the intending Palestinian policy:

• teach their children, starting in kindergarten, to hate Jews;
• glorify Jew-killers in their newspapers, radio and TV, and proclaim them martyrs;
• name streets and squares after them;
• pay, using international aid, pensions to the killers’ families;
• proclaim their hatred for Jews and refuse to live together with Jews;
• execute anyone of their own who sells land to the Jews;
• engage in murder, kidnapping, terror and mayhem in order to kill Jews.

According to the last survey by the Anti-Defamation League, 93% of Gazan residents openly hate Jews.

The so-called ‘friends’ of the Jews promptly condemn any and every Jewish attempt to protect themselves and their families, decry their armed resistance against murderers as being disproportionate and inhumane, despite repeated attempts by the Jewish Army, to the detriment of their own safety, to warn non-combatants.

The Paris conference lays the ground for yet another UN resolution dominated by Arab countries, requiring Jews to share the border with the antisemitic regime, openly dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish State. Anything not to incur Arab displeasure, which the meeting’s official resolution clearly will not. As the LA Times reports:

The final statement at the conference called on Israel to withdraw to its 1967 borders, as required by United Nations resolutions, and for both parties to “abstain from unilateral actions” that could jeopardize future negotiations.

Ah, the old two-state solution — a goal impossible to achieve. With whom does Israel negotiate such a pact? With the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank or the Hamas fanatics in Gaza who espise their Fatah brethren no less than they do Jews? The “two-states solution” exists only as a literary and political device to cast Israel as the object of global enmity. The giveaway in the above LA Times report is the demand for a return to 1967 borders, s impractical strategically as is the two-state call immune to practical realities.

In 2005, Israel voluntarily vacated Gaza. To do so, she expelled her own citizens from the flourishing villages which were growing fruit and vegies. The vacuum was immediately filled by terror-espousing Hamas, who  destroyed the Jewish-built hothouses. Now Gaza produces and grows nothing but rockets shot into Israel,  and underground tunnels, which use up the cement ostensibly brought to build homes. These tunnels let the murderers slip beneath the borders to attack Jewish families and kill them – men, women and children – in their sleep.

An independent Palestinian State, if recent and not-so-recent history is any guide, will inevitably broaden and expand the terrorists’  base — Gaza on steroids, if you will — to spread yet more hate, terror and destruction. The Oslo Accords, so lauded by adherents of the two-state solution, brought only death, insecurity and despair to the Israeli people. The Paris Conference, inspired by the French and actively supported by the Obama administration, sought a further imposition of this horror. The consequent and inevitable loss of Jewish lives was not deemed a likelihood deemed worth consideration.

Recent events in the Middle East have proven conclusively the irrelevance of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to the misery that mires the Middle East. Continuing inter-tribal bloodshed, hundreds of thousands of dead, wounded, and homeless refugees, destruction of infrastructure and the unfolding implosion of the entire Middle Eastern society has nothing to do with the territorial dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinian Arabs.

More than that, the standard cant of gatherings such as last weekend’s summit runs contrary to the interests of the Palestinian people, blinded by hate propaganda and shunned by their own Arab brethren. Palestinians have long been betrayed by their leaders, who have found it expedient to maintain a state of war, lest their greed and incompetence become clear for all to see. This trivial real estate dispute was never about the settlements, about a separate state for the Palestinians or Arab refugees. Nor does it hang on ‘occupation’. Not at all. It has always been, since  1948, about the very existence of Israel as a Jewish State.

The obsessive insistence of Western democratic governments on the Jewish settlements being the reason for the war’s existence is a fantasy that contributes to the ongoing tragedy, diverting attention from the real reason for this endless and fruitless war: Arab refusal to accept Israel’s existence.

The 2017 Paris conference was a parting ‘gift’ to Israel by Barack Obama. This conference continued the shameful tradition of people claiming to be ‘friends of Jews’ who betray Jews in their time of need. This conference was never going to foster peace. On the contrary, further escalated mutual hostilities.

However, there is a fundamental difference between the Evian and Paris conferences. This time, the Jews will not go quietly. Never again.

Dr Michael Galak and his family came to Australia as refugees from the Soviet Union in 1978. He recounts his family’s story here