IS COMMON SENSE AND FAIRNESS STARTING TO SHOW IN EUROPE? EU president raises eyebrows in his hesitance to refer to settlements as 'illegal'

Anti-Semitism has been a constant threat in Europe, but it's being challenged in most a European countries in a positive way. But just because hate mongers still exist the Governments themselves within Europe are not only tackling the problem but are also fighting back against BDS.  

The EU President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, who is in Israel to deliver a speech to the Knesset later Wednesday said :

"Anti-Semitism always existed in Europe, I thought that after World War II we were stronger in fighting such demons in politics. This is a deception. Nothing disappeared, all the prejudice is there."

For him to admit this is a major step forward. To "fight the demons" in such a way is admirable.

During a press briefing in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Schulz was pressed regarding the European position on Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Settlements are deemed illegal, but to continuously repeat that does nothing toward moving forward an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, Martin Schulz, said on Wednesday.

His hesitance at first to clearly state the well-known EU position regarding the illegality of the settlements raised some eyebrows, especially since he comes from the left-wing socialist grouping in the parliament.

Pressed on the matter, he said that under the Fourth Geneva Convention the settlements are deemed illegal but this is also shared by the US, which deems them "illegitimate."

But, Schulz surprisingly said, the characterization of the settlements as illegal does nothing to help solve problems. 

"We can discuss until Christmas the legality or illegality of the settlements," said the German politician "I think that what we need is not a debate about legality, but practical solutions," he said. "This is a question about political effectiveness and diplomacy."

For once very well said. Perhaps the Euopeans are coming out their shell. Hopefully the age of being anti Israel in Europe is becoming unfashionable and commonsense is prevailing. 

Israeli official: Iran's Khamenei spitting on world powers and the West thinks it's rain

Officials in Jerusalem upset that Western powers fail to condemn inflammatory comments by Iran's supreme leader: "We knew the Americans were eager to reach a deal in Geneva, but we did not estimate to how great an extent."

Israeli officials expressed shock Thursday that world powers negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program, and the US in particular, remained silent in regard to scathing commentsagainst Israel made by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday.

Khamenei took swipes at Israel and France during a speech to tens of thousands of volunteer Basij militiamen in Tehran, broadcast live on Iran’s Press TV. “Zionist officials cannot be called humans, they are like animals, some of them,” said Khamenei. “The Israeli regime is doomed to failure and annihilation,” he said. The Iranian leader referred to the "Zionist regime" as the "rabid dog of the region."

Jerusalem awaited condemnation of the comments from senior officials of the states taking part in nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva, but such a reaction was not forthcoming. The P5+1 group of world powers negotiating with Iran consists of the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.

"We knew the Americans were eager, even more so than the Iranians themselves, to reach an intermediate deal in Geneva, but we did not estimate to how great an extent," a senior official in Jerusalem told The Jerusalem Post's Hebrew-language sister publication Sof Hashavua Magazine.

The official added that "the West is choosing not to direct its gaze at Khamenei, who is the true face of Iran and its de facto ruler, and to accept the "pretty face" of Iran's new diplomacy instead. The comments by the supreme leader, who cursed America and France at the height of the talks, constitute spitting in the face of the enlightened world, not just Israel, but the world remains silent, thinking it is rain, and continues to talk with this leader's emissaries, who are masters of deception. They then blame us for making comparisons to the 1930s."

An official in the US delegation to the Geneva talks skirted questions Thursday from journalists on the issue, saying, "Naturally, there are still expressions of the deep lack of trust between us and the Iranians - which stem from more than three decades of severed relations. We are trying to reach an agreement whose goal is to peacefully prevent the Iranian regime from obtaining nuclear weapons, while dealing with this atmosphere, and it is not easy."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who flew to Russia on Wednesday to appeal for tougher terms, said Khamenei's comments showed Iran had not changed since so-called moderate Hassan Rouhani was elected as president in June.

"He called Jews 'rabid dogs' and said that they were not human. The public responded to him with calls of 'Death to America! Death to Israel!' Doesn't this sound familiar to you? This is the real Iran! We are not confused. They must not have nuclear weapons. And I promise you that they will not have nuclear weapons," the premier said.

Europe REJECTS BDS - Well done for a change Europe and well done all those who helped change opinion

A number of European Union parliamentarians and at least one head of a leading European
trade union have openly rejected the continent's recent decision to boycott Israeli "settler goods" and ban deals with Jewish businesses with a presence in Judea and Samaria (the so-called "West Bank").
In July, EU foreign policy chief Catheron Ashton announced new policy guidelines to go into effect on January 1, 2014 that would effectively end all business dealings with Israeli companies that maintained any kind of presence in what are often referred to as the "Jewish settlements."

On Wednesday, a group of 27 EU parliament members sent a letter to Ashton urging her and the European Commission to rethink that decision.

The lawmakers said Ashton must "take all the necessary steps to withdraw the commission guidelines or, at the very least, to come to terms with the government of Israel to ensure that their implementation will reflect the deep bilateral relations between the European Union and Israel and would by no means harm them."

Israel responded angrily to the new EU guidelines, accusing Europe of trying to prejudge the outcome of the peace process. Ostensibly, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is supposed to decide the future of Judea and Samaria via bilateral negotiations. But, the Palestinians, Europe and America already refer to the entire area as "Palestinian territories," nullifying legal and historical Jewish claims to the biblical heartland.

In addition to the brave showing by the above parliamentarians, German trade union leader Michael Sommer on Sunday said he would take on anyone who tried to boycott Israeli goods, regardless of their origin.

"As long as I am head of this organization, there will never be a resolution that says 'Don’t buy from Jews,'" Sommer declared during the third annual German-Israel Congress in Berlin.

Israeli flag banned through fear of upsetting members of the religion of permanent offence

Banned - The Israeli flag banned because
 it might cause 'offense'

At a recent government-sponsored “multicultural festival” in Nørrebro, intended to promote cultural “diversity,” a Jewish group was barred from displaying the Israeli flag. 

TaskForce Inclusion, one of the Orwellian-named organisers of the event, claimed that the measure was taken as a “safety precaution” (a precaution that applied, it seems, only to Jewish groups and a tacit admission that the mere sight of a Star of David would drive certain other attendees into spasms of violence).

We wonder who that might be?

 One government official later said that, initially, the Jewish group was to be completely excluded for fear of offending Muslim participants.

Modern liberality veils Europe’s history—and it’s the same veil behind which some of Europe’s less pleasant impulses lurk. 

There is a fatal flaw, after all, in European claims of multiculturalism. 

Multiculturalism really can enrich societies. And there is no better testament to this than the history of the Jews in Europe. They gave Europe Einstein and Kafka, Freud and Arendt. 

They made Europe the world’s intellectual center of gravity—until the Europeans killed them and drove them out. So why would Europe’s self-proclaimed multiculturalists sweep their shining example under the rug, unless something more unsavory were at play?

EU HATE FEST - Socialist MEP from Belgium hold anti-Israel event overBeduin policy

The Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament on Thursday prevented an Israeli official from participating in panel discussion on the Israeli Beduin community, which degenerated into a anti-Israel hate festival, Israeli diplomats said.

Véronique De Keyser, a socialist MEP from Belgium, led the seminar sponsored by the group titled “Beduin in the Naqab/Negev: Dreams and Nightmare.”

He criticised the panel for exploiting the Beduin as a Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment tactic against Israel.David Saranga, head of Israel’s European Parliament Liaison Department Mission to the European Union in Brussels, told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday evening that during the event, organizers displayed a poster saying: “Stop Prawer-Begin Plan, no ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Beduin.”

In a letter to European Parliament President Martin Schulz and Socialist group President Hannes Swoboda, Israeli Ambassador to the EU David Walzer wrote: “It is unacceptable that a poster accusing Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ toward the Beduin population in the Negev was used during the event hosted by the S&D Group.

"Europeans and Israelis are fully aware of the possible consequences of the irresponsible use of such words. I hope that you would agree with us that this is certainly not the best way to handle a constructive dialogue on ‘the state of play of the Prawer-Begin Plan.’” Israel plans to develop the Negev for new residential communities and military bases. The Prawer- Begin Plan seeks to regulate Arab settlement in the Negev by legalizing ownership to 63 percent of land claimed by Beduin, to compensate them with land and cash and work to improve their standard of living.

Schulz has not issued a response.

The S&D Group rejected the full participation in the seminar of Doron Almog, director of the Directorate for Economic and Community Development of the Negev Beduin in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Almog and Kamel Abu Nadi, a representative of the Bedouin community, addressed a separate panel on the same day sponsored by the Delegation for Relations with Israel in the European Parliament. They provided first-hand information concerning the Prawer-Begin bill and its ramifications.

Saranga told the Post, “Unfortunately, the organizers [of the Socialists’ seminar] systematically rejected our many requests to host an Israeli official as a speaker.

“They only agreed to give Mr. Almog the floor for five minutes during the debate. This is not certainly not the way to handle a dialogue.

All this makes me fear that the real objective of this seminar is not to improve the living conditions of the Israeli Beduin but rather to cynically exploit this crucial issue to bash again Israel. This is certainly not the best way to conduct a constructive dialogue,” Saranga said.

The overwhelming majority of Beduin support the plan and only a small percentage are against, he said.

Everyone who wanted to know the position of Israeli on Beduin came to the event organized by the Delegation for Relations with Israel, and the “number of MEPs and staff who attended our event was bigger” than for the discussion organized by De Keyser, Saranga said.

De Keyser, vice chairman of the S&D Group, was slammed by socialists in Belgium for her decision to visit President Bashar Assad in September. Belgium newspaper Le Soir quoted the spokesman of her party saying it in no way endorsed her trip. Meeting Assad granted him legitimacy and was incomprehensible, he added.

Jerusalem post 

EU Double standards again when it comes to Israel - How the EU directlyfunds settlements in occupied territory

The EU knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory - in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is.

GIANT Turkish flag is seen displayed on the side of a mountain near Nicosia in Turk-occupied Cyprus Photo: reuters

A delegation of European Union officials arrived in Israel this week to discuss the European Commission's proposed regulations for discretionary funding to Israeli entities.
Under guidelines prepared earlier this summer, euros would not be allowed to go to Israeli entities located cross the Green Line - or to those that have any operations there. All Israeli entities applying for funding would have to submit a declaration that they do not have such operations.

Europe claims that such a move - unparalleled in its dealings with any other country - is mandated by international law. The EU does not recognize Israel's sovereignty over the territories, and thus has an obligation to keep its money from going there. Those who celebrated the move said that Israel is finally paying the international price for its occupation.

Yet it turns out that despite the guidelines, the EU still knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory - in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is. So the EU funds the occupation of an EU member state. Turkey's invasion and occupation of Cyprus in 1974 was condemned the UN Security Council, and the EU's official policy is that the Turkish occupation is illegitimate, and Turkey must completely withdraw. The EU does not recognize the Turkish government in Northern Cyprus.

Nonetheless, the EU maintains an entire separate program to direct funds to Northern Cyprus.
They even put out a nice, colorful brochure last year.
The grants are pursuant to a 2006 regulation adopted by the EU to "end the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community," and allocated 259 million euros over five years, and now operates on an annual 28 million euro allocation (a sum that amounts to roughly 0.8 percent of Northern Cyprus["s GDP).

Projects include study abroad scholarships for students at the numerous Northern Cyprus universities (imagine such funding for students at Ariel University!); developing and diversifying the private sector through grants to small and medium- sized businesses; various kinds of infrastructure improvements (telecom upgrades, traffic safety, waste disposal); community development grants, funding to upgrade "cultural heritage" sites, and so forth. They even put on a concert.

The program basically gives grants to the Turkish business and private entities, and builds the infrastructure of the occupying government. The EU is doing exactly what its claims, in the settlement guidelines, international law prohibits.

The relevant EU resolutions and reports make no mention of any international legal question about such funding.

There are real differences between the EU's funding policies toward Turkey's occupied territories and Israel's territories: the former is a much starker contradiction of the principles the Europeans proclaim to uphold. The settlement guidelines aim to regulate groups based in Israel proper, and goes out of its way to make sure no money might be incidentally spent in the West Bank (or Golan or, oddly, Gaza). Yet the Northern Cyprus project is not simply an outgrowth of standing arrangements with Turkey or Cyprus, but rather a particular funding program that by definition funds 100% occupation activities.

Indeed, the EU maintains an office in Northern Cyprus to oversee its over "1000 grant contracts...to NGOs, SMEs, farmers, rural communities, schools and students," according to an EU report.

This office liaises directly with the Turkish occupation regime in the territory. It is as if the EU had a direct funding and infrastructure development program for the benefit of, and run in conjunction with, the Shomron Regional Council.

The Northern Cyprus program is more flagrant in another way. The settlement guidelines make an exception for activities "aimed" at helping "protected persons," an international law phrase meant to refer to the Palestinians. The Northern Cyprus funding cannot (and does not attempt) to claim this excuse because the majority of the territory's population is mainland Turkish settlers.

So the primary and intended beneficiaries are Turkish settlers.

The Northern Cyprus program is only the most glaring example of the broad EU funding for settlement activity. Agreements just inked this summer with Morocco would continue to fund its occupation of Western Sahara, for example. And of course, many European businesses and universities openly operate in occupied territories, from French oil companies in Western Sahara to British universities in Northern Cyprus. Yet these companies are not disbarred from EU funding, while similarly situated Israeli ones would be.

These EU activities have not generated an international legal outcry because in fact, the standard legal view is that such funding does not violate any rules or principles. The EU's novel position regarding Israel is neither the legal or logical consequence of Israeli activities.

The EU does not treat Israel like it treats other countries with settlements it considers illegitimate.

This suggests that if Israel abandoned the settlement, Europe would not treat it like other countries without settlements.

Source
Jerusalem Post

EU hypocrisy - One rule for Israel another for Spain

Gibraltar

Recent news reports from Spain beautifully illustrate why nobody should take the European Union's pretensions to moral superiority seriously-and especially not when it comes to Israel. Spain is now committing virtually every "abuse" the EU sanctimoniously accuses Israel of, without a peep of protest from its European peers.

For instance, Spain recently erected checkpoints along its border with Gibraltar that are creating real hardship. The checkpoints have lengthened travel times from 45 minutes to two hours for cross-border commuters and also increased costs, since people who used to drive now combine foot travel and taxis to reach work on time. These are precisely the complaints Europeans routinely level at Israeli checkpoints: that they undermine the Palestinian economy by increasing the time and expense of commuting to work or moving cargo.

But unlike the Spanish checkpoints-which blatantly violate the EU's open-border rules-Israeli checkpoints are perfectly legal under international law, even if you accept the EU's definition of the West Bank as "occupied territory" (which Israel doesn't; it considers the area disputed territory).

Under the laws of belligerent occupation, an occupying army is entitled to take reasonable military measures within the occupied territory to ensure its country's security; it isn't restricted to operating along the border. And Israel's checkpoints were established to stop Palestinian suicide bombers.

Spain's checkpoints, in contrast, are officially there to stop cigarette smuggling, though Gibraltar claims they are pure retaliation for its efforts to curb Spanish overfishing in its waters. By any standard, stopping suicide bombers is a stronger justification. Yet the same European officials who vociferously condemn Israel's checkpoints have nothing to say about the Spanish ones.

Then there are the hundreds of thousands of Catalonians who formed a 250-mile human chain this month to demand independence from Spain. Catalonians also gave an absolute majority to pro-independence parties in last year's provincial elections. Yet Spain adamantly refuses to let the province hold a referendum on secession.

By any standard, Israel has more justification for caution about Palestinian statehood than Spain does about Catalonian statehood. Catalonia has never threatened Spain in any way, nor is there any Catalonian terrorism. In contrast, large swathes of Palestinian society still call for Israel's destruction, and every previous Israeli cession of land to the Palestinians has produced a security nightmare: nonstop rocket fire from Gaza, and endless suicide bombings and shooting attacks from the West Bank (until Israel reoccupied it). Indeed, of the roughly 1,800 Israelis killed by terrorists since Israel's founding in 1948, fully two-thirds-about 1,200-were killed after Israel began ceding land to the Palestinians under the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Yet the European officials who repeatedly demand Israel's immediate withdrawal from the West Bank haven't said a word to support Catalonia. Apparently, Catalonians have no right to self-determination.

Then there are the Basques, whose oft-proclaimed desire for independence can't be tested in a vote because Spain repeatedly bars pro-independence parties from running on the grounds of alleged ties to the Basque terror group ETA. That also doesn't bother anyone in Europe, even though Europe objects vociferously when Israel refuses to talk to Palestinian parties that actively support terror, like Yasser Arafat's PLO during the second intifada. Nor was Europe troubled when Spain severed peace talks with ETA at the very first terror attack, which killed exactly two people, though it condemned Israel viciously for halting talks with Arafat over repeated terror attacks that killed more than 1,000 people.

In short, Europe denounces Israeli actions as unacceptable even as it deems the exact same actions by Spain unexceptionable. There's a name for such double standards, and it isn't "human rights." It's known as hypocrisy.

Global Zionism
---------------

Conference held in EU parliament building surprisingly in support of West Bank settlements

Ayelet Shaked

De-legitimization of parts of Israel by Europe is the new anti-Semitism," Bayit Yehudi's Shaked says in Brussels.
 
Samaria Regional Council Chairman Gershon Mesika and his deputy, Yossi Dagan, were guests at a conference on the harmful impact of the EU’s policies against West Bank settlements held Thursday in the European Parliament building in Brussels.

 

The parliament has often been hostile on the topic of Israeli activity in the West Bank. But on Thursday, Vice Chairman of the EU Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Italian politician Fiorello Provera, held the conference to help parliamentarians better understand the issue.

MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) told the European politicians that she feared the evacuation of West Bank settlements and the creation of a Palestinian state would only lead to increased missile attacks against Israel.

“Europe’s forcing us to cede land, in order to achieve the type of agreement it sees fit for the Middle East, will only mean that these missiles will continue to rain down on Israel not only from Gaza, but from Kalkilya and Ramallah as well,” Shaked said.

“If Europe thinks Jews will return to the days where we were forced to mark our products – you can forget it. De-legitimization of parts of Israel by Europe is the new anti-Semitism. The old anti-Semitism led to the destruction of our people in gas chambers. We will not allow the new anti-Semitism to hurt us,” Shaked declared.

“Such conduct creates a sense among Israelis that Europe is lost, [that] it is occupied by the forces of radical Islam. If that’s the message you’ve been trying to send, you’re doing a good job in getting it across. I want you to understand that you are important to us. We hold your support in high regard, but you cannot push us to commit suicide,” Shaked said.

The conference was titled “EU-Israel relations: impact of the new EU guidelines on Israel and their effects on the EU, Israeli and Palestinian economies.”

Among the other speakers were MK David Rotem (Likud Beytenu) and Israeli Ambassador to the EU David Walzer, whose office was helpful in putting together the event.

It's nice for a change to see unbiased views being aired from europe long may this continue.

 

 

 

 

Source JP

As Churchill said with two fingers in a V facing palm out "V FORVICTORY" - Well this is victory for Israel and the two fingers arefacing the other way to Europe as Israel dismisses EU settlementguidelines

Jerusalem rightly shuns words of 'biased former European officials.'

Israel rightly dismissed on Monday a letter by former European leaders calling on the EU to stick by its settlement guidelines.

As far as Jerusalem is concerned, the words of biased former officials are no longer significant. and rightly so.

“The people who signed the letter are no longer relevant and do not have control or say in the EU decision-making process,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. “This reflects their own biased positions and does not surprise us.
The letter by a group of former European statesmen, known as the Eminent European Persons Group, called on the EU not to backtrack on the settlement guidelines banning all EU cooperation with entities beyond the Green Line, including east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The letter was sent to the EU’s 28 foreign ministers.

The 15-member group includes former French Foreign Minister Hubert Verdine, who is one of its co-chairs, former EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who was NATO's secretary-general, and former Spanish foreign minister and Middle East envoy Miguel Moratinos.

The letter calls for the settlement guidelines to be upheld with regard to the ongoing Horizon 2020 negotiations.

Israel has said it would not join the 80-billion-euro R&D project under the settlement guidelines, and last week two meetings were held on the matter – one in Jerusalem and the other in Brussels.

Talks of modifying the implementation of the guidelines in such a way that Israel would be able to participate in the project are ongoing.

Responding angrily to the letter, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor called it “a danger to peace, as it hands one side a political victory without having to compromise and deepens the Palestinian feeling that they can gain more outside of negotiations than in them.”

In a full-page advertisement in Monday’s Financial Times, Kantor said the letter was discriminatory and would ultimately harm the success of peace efforts underway for the first time in three years.

“From the well-over 100 territorial disputes in the world, the European Union has mandated the creation of a clause in every agreement denying European funding to, and cooperation with, institutions from only one nation involved in a territorial dispute: Israel,” Kantor wrote.

“What makes the situation far worse is that the European Union is abrogating agreements that it signed and witnessed,” he said. “The Oslo Accords, the basis for the peace negotiations, specifically stipulated that the current status of the territories, and its residents, will not be changed or harmed ahead of final status negotiations, to which the parties have recently returned.”

Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon also accused the former EU officials of harming the peace process.

“Former European officials never cease to amaze,” he said. “They have crossed the line of criticism of the State of Israel. I expect the European leadership to condemn this move.”

Source

Jerusalem Post 

In true Euro form - Former European leaders call on EU to enforce ban on Israeli settlements, but obviously not being very concerned about barbarities that occur in Gaza

Netanyahu at meeting with Catherine Ashton,
EU High Rep for Foreign Affairs, June 20, 2013

Former leaders and senior officials from European Union member states have called on EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to stick to new guidelines limiting interaction with Israeli entities beyond the pre-1967 lines, despite Israel-generated pressure.

Army Radio said that the angry Israeli response to the guidelines had taken some in Europe by surprise, and that while no one had expected Israel to accept the move without some reaction, the ferocity was unanticipated.

The letter by the group, which includes former NATO secretary-general and Ashton's predecessor at the EU Javier Solana and former Spanish foreign minister Angel Moratinos, also called for the guidelines to be enforced with regards to Horizon 2020 - a 80 billion euro R&D project whose Israel involvement was called into question following the announcement of the guidelines.

Responding angrily to the letter, European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor on Monday called it "a danger to peace as it hands one side a political victory without having to compromise and deepens the Palestinian feeling that they can gain more outside of negotiations than in them.”
In a full-page advert in Monday’s Financial Times, Kantor said the letter was discriminatory, and would ultimately harm the success of peace efforts currently underway for the first time in three years.

“From the well over one hundred territorial disputes in the world, the European Union has mandated the creation of a clause in every agreement denying European funding to, and cooperation with, institutions from only one nation involved in a territorial dispute: Israel,” Kantor wrote.

“What makes the situation far worse is that the European Union is abrogating agreements that it signed and witnessed,” he said. "The Oslo Accords, the basis for the peace negotiations, specifically stipulated that the current status of the territories, and its residents, will not be changed or harmed ahead of final status negotiations, to which the parties have recently returned."
Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon also accused the former EU officials of harming the peace process. "Former European officials never cease to amaze," he said. "They have crossed the line of criticism of the State of Israel. I expect the European leadership to condemn this move."

Ashton said last month that the guidelines were simply "putting down on paper what is currently the EU position."
Its interesting that present and former European leaders are so adamant on sticking to this position whilst at the same time ignoring the plight of 'Palestinians' in Gaza and the West Bank under the brutal administration of Hamas or the PA. They choose to ignore the child molestation, murders, oppression and cruelty that occurs under these terror administrations and instead take a more easy option and pressurise a genuine democracy that will not respond violently, as Hamas or the PA would do.

The meddling European leaders and former leaders would do better at calling for a halt in European funding to these barbaric administrations which regularly break every human rights law created anywhere in the world, and instead support a genuine democracy - Israel and thus help restore peace to the middle east as Israel so badly wants.




source
Jerusalem Post

Kerry set to meet with EU leaders to discuss Syria and also Israeli-Palestinian negotiations

US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with senior officials in Lithuania and France over the weekend as US attempts to garner world support for a strike on Syria, along the way he will try to smooth EU-Israel relations - Umm

 

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to meet with senior Lithuanian officials on Saturday to discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria, as well as peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, according to a statement released by the US Department of State.
 

Kerry will discuss the ongoing talks between Israelis and Palestinians as they search for a definitive peace agreement.

 The EU as usual has been at odds with Israel lately after publishing new guidelines which limits interaction with Israeli entities beyond the pre-1967 lines.

 According to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the move 'undermines' the peace process and has lead to tensions between Israel and the EU, and understandably to considering it is always Israel in the spotlight and always Israel whom concessions are demanded.

 In response to the EU settlement guidelines, Israel has said they are considering withdrawing from the Horizon 2020 R&D program, a global business program associated with the EU.

 It will be interesting what's discussed and more so what discussed when Kerry is flies to Paris in France to meet with representatives from the Arab League. 

 The great appeaser and Secretary to the appeaser in Chief we're sure will be ironing out the negotiations without Israel in earshot, as is the case lately whether its the US or EU.

 

 

Anti-Israel EU bullying tactics used to pressure Dutch company to pullout of Israel deal

A Dutch engineering firm that was slated to participate in the construction of a sewage treatment facility in east Jerusalem announced on Friday that it was pulling out of the project due to bullying tactics used by the anti Israel industry that is prominent in Holland and also due to government pressure from a government that constantly panders to the Muslim vote in Holland. 

 In a move that drew praise from the Palestinians, the company, Royal HaskoningDHV, released a statement on Friday saying that it decided to terminate its involvement in the project “after due consultation with various stakeholders.”

In other words due to threats of violence, intimidation and hostility from the Dutch Government as well as islamist thugs who fester through Dutch society like a cancer, as with most of modern Europe. 

“Royal HaskoningDHV has today advised the client it has decided to terminate the contract for the Kidron waste water treatment plant project,” the firm announced on its Web site. “The project is in the early stages of the preliminary design phase.”

Royal HaskoningDHV carries out its work with the highest regard for integrity and in compliance with international laws and regulations,” the company said. “In the course of the project, and after due consultation with various stakeholders, the company came to understand that future involvement in the project could be in violation of international law.”

Because the Palestinian pressure groups say so! We wonder if this company would say the same if it won a contract in Iraq or Saudi? We wonder if the violation of human rights would matter then? The mutilation of young girls? The treatment of women as second class? The murder of Gays? And of course the rabid anti Semitism? We somehow doubt it.

The move was applauded by the Palestinian Authority. Hanan Ashrawi, an executive committee member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, hailed the Dutch firm’s decision. According to Ashrawi, the Dutch government had pressured the company to withdraw from the project.

Surprise surprise.

“Royal HaskoningDHV has emphasized that it conducts its work with the highest regard for integrity and in full compliance with international law and regulations,” 

Ashrawi said in a statement. “The planned Israeli water treatment plant in East Jerusalem breaches international law, and it is primarily designed to service illegal settlements that cause severe human rights violations.”

“This project deepens Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, consolidates its occupation of the West Bank, and constitutes another obstacle to the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital.”

This past July, the European Union enraged the Israeli government after its controversial decision to institute new guidelines limiting interaction with Israeli entities beyond the pre-1967 lines.

All this is just more evidence of the EU's anti - Israel stance and is proof of the influence anti - Semitism still has in a Europe that only 70 years ago displayed anti - Semitism in it most extreme form. 

"Occupied Territories": What About Cyprus, Kashmir, Tibet?

This latest decision tells us nothing about Israel or the West Bank. But it tells us what we need to know about the EU.

What about Cyprus? That is just one of the questions that Israelis and Europeans should be pondering now that the European Union has again decided that it should dictate Israeli border and security policy.

Last week the European Union issued a ban on funding of, or cooperation with, any Israeli institutions that are shown to operate in what it calls the "occupied territories" – meaning the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria. Never mind that -- as Palestinian groups have already admitted -- the ban will affect Palestinians as much as Israelis. In its perpetual rush to find new double-standards to enforce, the EU has rushed straight in, regardless.

As one senior Palestinian Authority official said on the announcement of the news, many Palestinians in Ramallah and elsewhere will be just as affected by the EU's decision as their Israeli neighbors. The senior PA official was quoted saying:

"For our part, we approached a number of [European] Union officials, in the [Palestinian] Authority and also in Israel, to try and prevent the decision or at least to keep it unofficial," said the official, who declined to give his name. "It's not just Israeli companies that are going to be hit economically, it's also going to be disastrous economically and socially for the Palestinian community."

Well what are a few Palestinians to the EU's persistent drive to isolate the Jewish state? Tolerable collateral damage, surely?

But what about Cyprus? After all, there are many countries in the world with border disputes. There is at least one major one on China's borders [Tibet]. And there is the rather famous one which borders Pakistan [Kashmir]. Border disputes are hardly unusual. Similar stories abound all over the world, such as the unresolved dispute involving Morocco over the status of the Western Sahara. Yet all these countries are ones with which the EU has full, if not fawning, diplomatic and trade relations.

Of course, what makes the EU's latest double-standard even more delicious is that the occupied island of Cyprus is actually a member of the EU. As such, shouldn't it surely command the most detailed and persistent attention from the international body?

Yet this is not so. The northern part of Cyprus has been illegally annexed for the last four decades by Turkey. It is not as though Turkey shares a border with the island. Nor does it have -- as Israel has with the West Bank -- any legitimate historical, political or other territorial claims on the northern part of the island. There is no security reason for Turkey to sustain its occupation, as there is an obvious need for Israel to have defensible borders that do not permit terrorists from the West Bank to fire rockets into Israel, as do its friends in post-disengagement Gaza or southern Lebanon.

The crumbling buildings of the Varosha district of Famagusta, Cyprus, photographed in 2009. The area lies within Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus. The inhabitants fled during the 1974 Turkish invasion and the district has been abandoned since then. (Source: WikiMedia Commons)

But unlike Israel and the West Bank, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus is not even a disputed matter. It was certainly not some understandable territorial gain made after aggressive war waged by Greece. It was outright theft -- an annexation: state terrorism. The entire international community recognizes it as such. Yet in 2013 not only is Turkey not an enemy of the EU, and not only is it a country which enjoys complete diplomatic and trade relations with the EU, it is a country which many leading members and officials of the EU actually want to promote into a full member-state of the EU.

Into the fifth decade of Turkish occupation of Cyprus, there is still no serious dictating by the EU to Turkey over what it must do about northern Cyprus. Turkey does not find itself under even the most remote international pressure finally to disengage from its illegal occupation of the northern part of Cyprus. And that is because for some inexplicable reason the EU does not consider it imperative that Turkey should disengage from the illegal occupation of an EU member state. It does not consider that the future of any region depends on this action. Yet it does persist, even now, with its view that it can dictate to Israel about its borders. And that it can have a constructive role in doing so. Of all the fallacies of the EU, that is surely the topmost.

The EU does not only have a wrong-headed view of Israel's past, it has a wholly misguided view of its future.

Today Israel is at the very bottom of the list of countries of concern, even in its own neighborhood, let alone the wider world, with nearly 100,000 dead in Syria and Egypt going through a counter-counter revolution, and with the Sunni-Shiite conflict looking likely to reach one of its intermittent boiling points as the Shiite armies of Hezbollah clash with the Sunni-armed opposition in Syria. Amid all this, the issue of where Jews should or should not live inside their historical homeland is a matter of the lowest international import.

Yet the EU -- which always likes to think of itself as such a forward-looking organization -- is once again showing itself to be stuck in a wrong-headed and bigoted past. It is not Israel which is the problem in the Middle East. Today Israel is, in fact, about the only non-problem in the region.

Yet it is this country's sovereignty upon which the EU decides time and time again that it can intrude. This latest decision tells us nothing about Israel or the West Bank. But it tells us what we need to know about the EU.

source

EJC: EU Readily Labels 'Settlements', Refuses to Ban Hizbullah

European Jewish Congress blasts EU's move to label goods over 'Green Line' as body refuses to label Hizbullah a terror organization.

Hizbullah forces

In a letter sent to all leaders of European Union member states, European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor has compared the EU’s moves to label goods from Israeli companies operating over the ‘Green Line’ with the long overdue proscription of Hizbullah.

“Firstly, this policy is seen as discriminatory as the European Union appears to be singling out one disputed territory of the world for special treatment, whereas the European Union has no similar policies for the other tens of territories that are the subject of international disputes.”

“Moreover, the timing of the labeling issue is inauspicious as it is diverting energies that could be better placed supporting positive moves towards restarting direct negotiations between the parties,”

 Kantor wrote. “I believe that the implementation of a policy which is seen as one-sided and biased at this time will only serve to negatively affect this positive momentum and increase ill-faith and bad feeling between the parties.”

The EJC also argues that this policy will also have a negative effect on the Arab population, many of whom work or are supported by these Israeli companies.

“This policy will also have the additional problematic effect of disenfranchising tens of thousands of Palestinians who work for these Israeli companies, earning pay far greater than in the Palestinian Authority, and their dependents, who would suffer an enormous financial blow from the ramifications of this policy,” Kantor said.

Kantor wrote in the letter that while the labeling of goods originating over the ‘Green Line’ was problematic, it is made worse by the comparative lack of traction on the issue of adding Hizbullah to the EU list of terrorist organizations.

“The greatest concern to us as European citizens is that while there is a consensus and movement on the labeling issue, there appears to be little movement on the goal of proscribing Hizbullah as a terrorist organization within the European Union,” Kantor wrote in the letter to the European leaders. “While the European Union’s oft-stated goal is to achieve peace and security in the Middle East, these words will remain hollow if an organization with a proven and undisputable record of murder and terrorism in Europe and around the world, and whose goal is to destroy the Jewish State, is allowed to act freely, recruit and raise funds unimpeded on the European continent.”

“I would urge you to prioritize the proscription of an organization whose aim is to derail security and stability in the region and beyond, and whose ongoing role will ensure that peace will not be achieved in the Middle East. This is the greatest contribution the European Union can make to US Secretary of State Kerry’s efforts, and the efforts of those who wish to see a restart of negotiations which will lead to a resolution of the protracted conflict,” Kantor concluded.

Arutz 7

Related articles

• EU Fails to Blacklist Hizbullah (israelnationalnews.com)
• Lieberman: If EU Won't Blacklist Hizbullah, it's Irrelevant (israelnationalnews.com)

Bulgaria presents its EU partners new evidence linking Hezbollah to Burgas bombing

Britain has formally requested the EU to add Hezbollah’s ‘’military wing’’ to the list of terrorist groups. Britain and France backed the move but several other countries - including Austria, Italy, Ireland – reportedly continue to block efforts to secure the blacklisting out of fear that the it would further fuel tensions in the Middle East.

Why is it too difficult to understand Hezbollah, is a terror organisation????

SOFIA/BRUSSELS (EJP)---Bulgaria this week presented new evidence to the European Union implicating Hezbollah in the July 2012 Burgas bus bombing which killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver, as it appears that Sofia is ready to join a consensus decision of the European Union blacklisting the Lebanese group.

Five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed in the July 19, 2012
 bombing of the bus in the Black Sea resort. of Burgas.

A Bulgarian representative to the European Union said earlier this week  that investigators have discovered that a Hezbollah operative was the owner of a printer used to produce fake documents that facilitated the July 19, 2012 bombing of the bus in  the Black Sea resort.

“The Bulgarians put new evidence on the table during this meeting,” a diplomat quoted by Reuters said. “Their representative said the printer had been sold to someone from Hezbollah.”

Last February, then Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said there was “well-grounded” evidence that Hezbolla, headed by Hassan Nasrallah, was behind the attack. He reportedly added that Bulgarian investigators traced a printer that had produced two forged licenses back to Lebanon, but he did not say the printer was owned by Hezbollah.

But Bulgaria alarmed many of its EU partners when the Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin, from the new Socialist government, backed away from that stance and questioned whether there was enough proof of Hezbollah’s role.

Since then, however, Bulgaria has decided to change direction again, according to two Western diplomats quoted by Reuters who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It seems that the new government has been testing its limits and has tried to see how far it may go, but once they got a reaction from other EU member states they quickly stepped back,” one diplomat said.

Foreign Minister Vigenin earlier this month stated publicly that the position of Bulgaria is unchanged.

Britain has formally requested the EU to add Hezbollah’s ‘’military wing’’ to the list of terrorist groups. Britain and France backed the move but several other countries - including Austria, Italy, Ireland – reportedly continue to block efforts to secure the blacklisting out of fear that the it would further fuel tensions in the Middle East.

The decision would require unanimity among the EU's 27 member states.

Blacklisting Hezbollah would freeze its assets in Europe and prevent it from raising funds there. In the EU, only Netherlands has outlawed the Lebanese group while Britain did the same with the group’s military wing.

In a statement sent to Reuters last Wednesday, the Bulgarian foreign ministry said: "Bulgaria is ready to join a consensus decision of the European Union. The responsibility to present a solid foundation for it is a collective one."

The Socialist government, while broadly pro-Western, is traditionally sympathetic towards Russia, and this could have played a part, said a former official with the previous, center-right government.

Israel hopes that the European countries who are still reluctant to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization change their mind, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday before a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Jerusalem.

Speaking at a press conference, he  said it "would be the right thing to do."

"I hope that those in Europe who refuse to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization will change their mind, and I hope there will be a European consensus on this. I mean, it's hard to see how you cannot have a consensus on Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. If Hezbollah isn't a terrorist organization, I don't know what is a terrorist organization. I mean, they're butchering people left and right across the world and now in the cities of Syria. They're murdering civilians without letup, including on European soil, as was discovered in Bulgaria, as they try to do in Cyprus. So I would say the designation of Iran's proxy Hezbollah as a terrorist organization is our second hope that Europe would do, and it would do the right thing," Netanyahu said.

A bipartisan group of members of the US Congress from both parties have called on the European Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, congratulating the EU on the formal process to blacklist the Iranian-backed group.

Discussing the call, Republican Doug Lamborn from Connecticut  emphasized that inaction emboldened Hezbollah, which has “killed more Americans than any other organization after al-Qaeda.”


Related 

Doesnt appear to be confustion here, Bulgaria clearly state Hezbollah involved in this terror attack??  
The report issued by Bulgaria about the terrorist attack in Burgas clearly indicates that Hezbollah was involved in its planning and execution.


European Jewish Press