Europe should label terrorists, not tomatoes by David Suissa
http://www.jewishjournal.com/david_suissa/article/europe_should_label_terrorists_not_tomatoes
On Nov. 11, while Islamic terrorists were preparing for their Friday night massacre in Paris that would leave 129 people dead and 352 injured, one of the big news items was the European initiative to put special labels on Israeli goods that originate from disputed Israeli-occupied territory.
As the European Commission explained in a fact sheet, this is not new legislation but a clarification of existing legislation dating back to 2012. In other words, the European obsession with singling out Israel for special punishment didn’t just start last week. It’s been an ongoing affair.
While Islamic terrorists have been scheming to terrorize the European continent, bigwigs in Europe have been laboring over how to “protect” European consumers from Israeli goods produced in the West Bank, such as vegetables, olive oil, honey, eggs, poultry, wine, organic products and cosmetics.
Well, that ought to keep Europeans safe!
As much as I’m disgusted by the sight of religious fanatics rampaging through Paris murdering people who just want to enjoy life, these murderers are simply doing what they believe their prophet or God wants them to do. It may violate every standard of decency known to humanity, but that’s what fanatics do.
Author and Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali calls this group of Muslim fundamentalists “Medina Muslims,” in that they see the forcible imposition of sharia as their religious duty, following the example of the Prophet Mohammed when he was based in Medina. As she wrote recently in Foreign Policy, this group argues for “an Islam largely or completely unchanged from its original seventh-century version and take it as a requirement of their faith that they impose it on everyone else.”
Now, you can be repulsed by this religious ideology. You can believe it is vile, indecent and inhuman. But you can’t tell me it’s not a religious ideology. You can’t tell me that the fanatics of ISIS and other radical Islamic groups are fighting for human rights, jobs and better health care.
The one European leader who seems to have understood this is British Prime Minister David Cameron, who said in an address last July: “What we are fighting, in Islamic extremism, is an ideology. It is an extreme doctrine. And like any extreme doctrine, it is subversive. At its furthest end it seeks to destroy nation-states to invent its own barbaric realm.”
So, while religious fanatics have an ideological explanation for their barbaric acts, what is the explanation for those self-righteous European bureaucrats who spend so much of their time maligning Israel?
Now that they’ve just witnessed the barbarians crashing the gates of the City of Lights, will their priorities finally change? Or will they continue to single out Israel and treat the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the mother of all global conflicts– as if its resolution could somehow stop the rampant Islamic violence now threatening Europe and much of the world?
I wonder if those European honchos ever ask themselves what kind of message they are sending to terrorists when they labor so publicly over the labeling of Israeli tomatoes. That they mean business in their fight against terror?
Here’s my suggestion for all European leaders who really do mean business in this war against religious fanaticism: Stop your obsession with Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And stop thinking that beating up Israel in public will win you Muslim friends. It won’t, especially not with those who are out to kill.
Yes, Israel needs to resolve its conflict with the Palestinians — for its own sake. The majority of Israelis would love nothing better than to get a divorce from the Palestinians. They’ve seen how the word “occupation” has become a big, sharp blade that enemies conveniently use to bludgeon the Jewish state. At the same time, they worry that if Israel leaves the West Bank, that blade would only get bigger and sharper as groups like ISIS and Hamas take over and unleash barbarians of their own. For now, Israel is stuck, and its enemies know it.
In any event, regardless of its challenges and problems, Israel should be the least of Europe’s concerns. For one thing, you don’t hear reports of Israeli terrorists and refugees trying to enter Europe to wreak havoc on European cities. Maybe Israeli tourists and high tech firms, but no murderers.
If the leaders of Europe are serious about winning this war, they should ask Israel to become its #1 partner in fighting the scourge of Islamic terror. God knows the Jewish state has plenty of experience in this area.
But first, Europe will need a lesson in the priorities of labeling. Label the terrorists, yes. Label their ideology, yes. Label the allies who can help you fight them, yes.
Just stop labeling Israeli tomatoes.
Comments are closed.
