The war Israel is losing, badly
I plan on violating the EU’s directive as often as possible on my upcoming trip to Israel.
Arab armies could not defeat Israel.
Nor could Palestinians turning their young adults into walking guided missiles.
Nor could Hamas rockets, nor will Hezbollah missiles. Iranian nukes pose a unique future threat, which will need to be dealt with at some point.
But there is a war Israel is losing, badly. The lawfare war, the use of false legal premises about the illegality of Israel’s actions to delegitimize Israel generally, and to attempt to force territorial concessions which are not in Israel’s national, religious or security interest.
Whether it is the U.N. Human Rights Council and European judges applying standards on the conduct of war uniquely and exclusively to Israel, or the BDS movement embraced by the Islamist-Leftist coalition gaining traction in science and academia, lawfare is a clear and present danger to Israel.
The latest is a directive from the EU directing members not to deal with any part of Israel over the 1949 armistice line:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out on Tuesday against a new European Union directive that bars its 28 member states from cooperating with Israeli entities in the West Bank, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. Netanyahu said Israel wouldn’t accept dictates about its borders from any outside forces.
“As prime minister, I won’t allow hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in the West Bank, Golan Heights, and in Jerusalem — our united capital — to be harmed,” he said….
The EU directive, sent out on June 30 and set to take effect on Friday, extends to “all funding, cooperation, and the granting of scholarships, research grants and prizes” to Israeli entities in East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank.
It also requires that any contracts between EU member countries and Israel henceforth include a clause stating that East Jerusalem and the West Bank are not part of the state of Israel.
The directive is based on legal falsehood that the 1949 armistice line (often referred to as the pre-1967 borders) renders Israeli occupation “illegal.” To the contrary, it was Jordanian occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem prior to 1967 that was illegal:
None of this history matters, politically.
Anti-Israeli groups have owned the messaging for at least two generations.
I don’t know if the lawfare battle is lost, but I do know that Israel is losing it, badly.
Update: Be sure to read EU wishes to force Israel back to 1949 by Anne in Petach Tikva, and The baseless hatred of the EU towards Israel by Melanie Phillips.
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Comments
Thank Obama for not blocking the UN vote.
The sick part is that even West Jerusalem is not being recognized. And there are two lines; they are giving the PA dictatorship even no-man’s land. So Israel loses in both directions. Not that Jerusalem is divided in any way; neighborhoods go right across. What do they want to do: knock down huge residential areas of Ramot and build a wall? Probably, yes.
Israel’s problem is that it does not have enough morality, as measured in millions of barrels of oil produced per year.
Basically, the EU and the UN want to starve them out.
I guess we’d better keep our (subsidized) agricutural sector, then.
Do you know that when the Zionist movement started, people thought Jews were capable of anything but farming and fighting. And that the Arabs were gentlemen and amazing figheters. True story. (Know you know how the British messed up the mandate.)
I plan on boycotting the EU.
Meanwhile, the EU pours government money into Israel’s equivalent’s of Code Pink.
Equivalents
Baruk Hashem Israel is forever!
Don’t believe what you see with your eyes. Like the ancients, look with your heart and see the redemption the G-d of Israel has AlWAYS provided.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/26/jewish-population-west-bank-up July 2012 statistics:
The number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank grew by more than 15,000 in the past year to reach a total that exceeds 350,000 for the first time and has almost doubled in the past 12 years.
Figures from Israel’s population registry show a 4.5% increase in the past 12 months. Most of the newcomers moved into settlements that many observers expect to be evacuated in any peace deal leading to a Palestinian state.
There are an additional 300,000 Jews living in settlements across the pre-1967 border in East Jerusalem, the pro-government and mass-circulation newspaper Israel Hayom reported.
The G-d of Israel is bringing the Jews BACK to where they belong. Believe!
If a guy is beating you in the head with a hammer, does it mean you are in a “hammer fight?”
Of course not. “Lawfare” is just a tool being used against Israel. But suppose Israel devoted scarce resources to fight and win some of these legal battles? Would it have actually “won” anything at all, or would those who hate and want to destroy Israel merely pick up other weapons?
Obviously Israel doesn’t have its strongest ally, the USA, fully in its side with islamophile Obama in power, but it seems well placed to defend any military threats. And economic actions like EU’s generally tend to backfire when their biggest companies start losing contracts to competitors without those shackles upon them.
The enemies of Israel are the enemies of truth, and always have been. They won’t be stopped by defeats on minor battlefields. Marxist, leftist, islamist, none of them care about any principle beyond victory and none will be deterred by anything short of their impending physical destruction.
Actually we do use it. Pro-Israel people sue various entities related to terrorism. For example, the family of the disabled man murdered by the PLO (our “peace partners”) for the crime of being Jewish (Achille Luaro). I think at one point they got a Russian vessel impounded in Canada.
Leon Klinghoffer. I just saw a plaque in his memory at the Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
True, we use lawfare ourselves – a bit. But it nearly all comes from private organizations like Shurat Hadin, and almost nothing from the government. That is almost criminal negligence. Why have our governments never stated our case clearly and fully? They need to do this on a regular basis and stay “on-message” constantly in order to counter the persistent “okkupayshun” message of the Palestinians.
Anne, the answer should be obvious – just like in America, the Left in Israel, despite being in the minority, is much more vocal and aggressive than the majority Right, and is firmly in control of the “holy trinity” of the media, the judiciary, and academia, and moreover, essentially agrees with the EU’s position regarding the “peace process” in general and the settlements in particular. Also like in America, the Israeli Right, when in power, is totally afraid of the Left. This neurosis resulted in the shelving of the government-commissioned report by former Supreme Court justice Edmond Levy that came to the conclusion that the settlements are in fact absolutely legal according to international law.
This may be true, but
a) I’m not sure Israel can do much about the PR war. I believe that a fair amount of Europe’s animus comes from anti-Semetism and Europe’s misplaced sense of self-righteousness– both of which are very difficult to combat.
b) I’m not sure how much difference Europe’s legal games makes in the long run. It’s vexing sure, and it does handicap Israel– especially Europe’s holding Israel and the IDF to to an imposed standard that is ridiculous on the face of it. But, the rest of the Middle East is so unstable that Israel is very attractive for Europeans looking to do business in the Middle East. I think the EU’s directive will prove to be just more hollow PR than real. People that would be/are willing to do business with Israel will continue to do so. At least that’s my hope.
On a tour of the towns and city of the trans-Samaria road, they said that the European boycott of the terrirtories was hurting business (and of course throwing a lot of Arabs out of work). My first thought was – why don’t people want do buy from Puerto Rico and Guam?
Realizing he meant ISRAELI territories, not American ones, I asked if they had any trouble in America. He said no, Americans don’t care whther the produce is East, West, or on top of the Green Line.
The common sense interpretation of events, words, and laws are turned on their heads everywhere in the West, not just in Israel, here as well. Parallel the differences between life in Syria, Egypt, Libya, and Israel with the differences in life between east LA, south-side Chicago, north Philadelphia, and Anyville, USA. It’s the global quest for a scapegoat by those who have been told for two generations, or three millenia, they need not change their behavior in any way to avail themselves of the most basic natural human “rights” they see being enjoyed by those who have changed. Washington’s racism, Brussels’ anti-semitism – they’re all clueless.
As Bibi Netanyahu says: “OUTSIDE ENTITIES CANNOT RESET OUR BORDERS.”
It’s not going to affect tourism. The “EU” has so many problems, besides. It’s just like “waiting for God’s hand to come along and slap them silly.”
Herman Wouk lays out a Jewish argument. He says out Biblical text is ancient. While Israel’s existence is a contuation. Wouk is a big believer in the Talmud. And, I think Wouk got the argument about right in The Language God Talks.
I also believe obama’s influence, where he hates Israel, but loves the Muslem Brotherhood … shows all over the policies that are coming out of his administrations. (Nothing that’s actually happened points to any success.)
And, like Bibi says, none of those hitler loving countries should have any say in where Israel’s borders are!
This gimmick? Obummer went to africa. Didn’t stop in Egypt. But ignored what was happening there.
Assad’s still in power in Syria.
As someone else once expressed: Obama doesn’t disappoint me. He can’t. He just a loser who is leaving a record of his stumbling steps. You want to pour beer on it, silently, go ahead. He’s NULL and he’s VOID.
The idiocy is that by including Jerusalem, they have made it completely impossible for us to do what they want, even if we want to. There is no way to divide Jerusalem.
I have a friend in Ramot, a Jerusalem neighborhood that goes right across the Green Line. His firend and neighbor is a Arab who has a compond with his sons. He moved there when Jordan illagally occupied the area in 1948. Note that Israel let him be when they took over, while Jordan imprisioned the Jews in the area they took over.
My question is – who is the settler: my friend or his Arab neighbor?
Israel is kind of like the George Zimmerman of the Middle East.
It’s being attacked, and no honest mistake or misstep it makes in the process of defending itself is too small and insignificant for the hustlers and shakedown artists to shout “Racist! Devils!”
The main difference between George and Israel is … Israel gets much worse press.
Perfect analogy LukeHandCool.
And we have more guns.
The problem is, we need someone to sell thme to us.
On the contrary. We have a thriving military industry. In fact we need to sell our arms, not buy them. In a pinch we can probably make enough ourselves.
This is another necessary step in the process of the EU engaging in tyranny and creating conditions that differ from reality in the member states. When it passes the tipping point, the people will turn against these elite masters and rise to address the problems they have caused.
When Bill Clinton made his famous “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” declaration Hillary Clinton went on the Today Show and stated that there was a “vast right wing conspiracy” out to get Bill. Of course, as we found out, her husband’s statements were (based on your interpretation of sexual relations) not true. However, with regard to Israel, and by extension the U.S., there is a vast left wing conspiracy to discredit them. Please read the book “Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategy for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism.” The Soviets (and now presumably the Russians) spent more on disinformation than all other forms of intelligence services or spying. Unfortunately, they’ve done a good job.
From Time Immemorial is another good read while we await a Hillary autobiography detailing her off camera relationship with Arafat.
If the U.S. did NOT have a Jew Hater as the head of our nation, things could be, just a tad different.
Unfortunately, We the People do NOT have, such a person! If one takes a close look at barry, you may spot his outright hatred of בִּנְיָמִין “בִּיבִּי” נְתַנְיָהוּ.
I just know that there is a Hawaiian Birth Certificate for Bibi. I’m still searching..
I’ll help you look.
Me too.
I’ve frequently offered to trade Barry for Bibi to an Israeli friend, when she’s occasionally critical of Netanyahu, but she always says “no thank you.” Go figure. 🙂
I’ve heard of the “Bibi Birthers”, who want to claim that Bib was really born i nthe US (where he did spend part of his childhood) so they can run him for President. My view is that would imrove both countries.
In the meantime, I’ll trade Obama for Harper.
It’s not just Obama. It’s along-standing policy at the un-American State Department, in contradiction to long-standing congressional legislation.
If you were born in Jerusalem, whether East, West, or on top of the Green Line (the Green Line is quite wide; I went to school “on top”) to American parents, your US passport has your place of birth as Jerusalem, with no country listed. This is old policy.
And if you live in Jerusalem, you can’t go to the American embassy. You have to go to the “Jeruslaem Counselate”, which also has an e-mail connection to Gaza.
Enjoy your trip to Israel, and I presume you will visit Jerusalem. Here is an excellent post about Temple Mount History on the Anne’s Opinions blog.
The “lawfare” issues puzzle me simply because it is contradictory to the history of virtually all of the other borders in previous French and British mandate nations. Everyone else hews to the mandate borders, so why not Israel in local and world opinion?
We Americans and a wide alliance of nations, including Arabs, even went to war to protect the original mandate borders of the British Protectorate of Kuwait, as well as the non-mandate lands of Saudi Arabia. So why is the original border of “Jewish Palestine” is dispute?
That’s easy Aridog. It’s called holding Israel to a standard no other nation is required to hold to. In other words a double standard. Or even more simply, Antisemitism, since Israel is the only state held to these standards and by coincidence, or not, Israel is the world’s only Jewish state.
(Thanks for linking my blog btw 🙂 )
Anne, you are an old friend and you know well I can’t say what I really think in civilized company. I don’t comment a lot lately because my attitude is too radical, especially on the topic of Israel, for either your site or Professor Jacobson’s. Rabid is not what y’all need at this time.
The mandate borders include Israel, Judea, Samaria, and Jordan.
Are you saying Israel should annex the latter three?
I’m afraid people will completely misunderstand your post.
[…] Professor Bill Jacobson at Legal Insurrection similarly addresses the international law aspect of this EU directive, calling it “lawfare” in his post about “The War that Israel is losing badly“: […]
Europe has not changed, it’s still 1937 and they are still trying to solve the “Jewish Problem”. They still think Hitler’s way was best, they just don’t have the guts to try it themselves. Besides, they’re sure that if they did try it they’d find out if Israel has nukes(and how many).
I have no desire to post a negative of Israel on this thread . Ito me Israel exists because it does.
However The view of Jewish in Europe 30s did include the fact that prominent Socialists & Communists were Jewish. The USSR was seen as a Jewish construction.
It is not unlike today where a large % of out there talking heads & opinion drivers are Jewish & decidedly left.
Plus ther rule Hollywood & the cultural political axis.
Yes, there were a lot of anti-semites in Europe in the 30’s. This is news? A lot of them joyfully helped the Nazis murder Jews.
The USSR was created when the German General Staff, not a Jew among them, sent Lenin and Trotsky (one Christian, one Jew, both Atheists) in a sealed train to Russia. And one of the first thing the COmmunists did (especially the Jewish ones) was to totally destroy the Jewish religion in the USSR. Oh, and Stalin studied in an Orthodox Christian seminary.
What has any of that got to do with the subject of this thread? Are you trying to imply that the Jews control the media and Hollywood? You’re stepping into very dangerous territory there. I’m surprised you’re banned by the Guardian. Sounds to me like you’d fit right in there.
Many western Jewish are very left . A few commenters have even stated- Why do ( American ) Jews hate America?
Many Jewish in the theatre & cinema world are very left. Have a look at the sheer number & donators at Obama fundraiser s in Hollywood & NyY. Hollywood moguls are often a jewish & ALL support Obama.
I was planning to see a famous British actor’s Dicken’s women theatre performance until I heard her remarkable anti Israel rants . Yes she is Jewish Marian Margoyles or something . I note she has moved to my district & brought her awful Jewish ideas with her. You guys should do something about your own before you propel your guilt onto everyone else.
Plus 2 words – Rosa Luxemburg. More than your average Jewish left revolutionary who loomed over Germany ‘s political discourse .
Besides Anne , my point is a direct answer to Genes post.
Are you trying to threaten me? Got a secret prisolined up.?
Prison .
Your reply is bizarre. Prison? What are you going on about? You’d love that though. To be able to be declared a martyr for the cause, at least in your own head.
Aha – you do not recall our previous topic.
For MZK – I direct you to Putin’s recent statement on the transfer of Menachem Schneerson’s papers to The Moscow Library. Putin stated that almost all the first Soviet were Jews.
You can take that up with the Russian President /PM/ KGB boss/ Leningrad native. . I think he might know a bit.
One of the more shocking things I have participated in was arguing with liberal Jews in Ithaca, who were anti-Israel. A complete waste of time.
Mohammed was a smart guy, creating his religion with Jewish prophets.
I want to take my family to Israel … I have heard its incredible.
That is true if you include consider Jesus a Jewish prophet. Islam was created out of both Judaism and Christianity and probably some other things.
It is true that some of the things the Islam took from Judaism are different from the things Christianity took, or at least they retained different things. For example, in Islam the definition of usury and fasting, as well as burial and mourning customs, are closer to Judaism than to contemporary Chirstianity. And, of course, the understanding of God. On the other hand, with a Christian I can quote the Bible.
Just one more reason to not buy products made in Europe.
If Islamo-fascists eventually destroy Western Europe, it will be a fate richly deserved.
I remember reading about Arik Sharon’s skills when he was young. He had to teach recruits not only to stand and stay attuned when gunfire was coming straight at them … He said they should consider that the people firing at them were also sh!t scared. And, what they should do is concentrate on where the gun fire was coming from … because it would aid them to focus. They could shoot back with much more accuracy.
Israel has always been DAVID against GOLIATH.
And, yes. When you look at all the wars the Jews had to win … it becomes apparent that there must be the magical hands of God also at play.
That’s why I’m glad I read Herman Wouk’s most recent book: THE LANGUAGE GOD TALKS. Wouk is 98 years old, ahready, and he still has the strength to tell a good story.
Here, he plants the Old Testament as our ancient text. But he says the story’s not over. (For the Story of JOB he included it in his War and Remembrance … as winning out of Homer’s The Illiad.)
Remember too, that the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans are all dead. While the “dust” God used to create his Old Testament are still standing hence all these thousands of years.
The ancient Jews wrapped their faith around the monotheistic God. And, those books still stand. We also know, since the Dead Sea Scrolls were found … that what was written in them didn’t change from what we see is written in them, today. (UNCHANGED.)
And, now? Let’s say God protects Israel. God Blesses Israel. You have the ancient texts on the one hand. And, you now may be getting the arrival of this old story playing out?
The only evidence you collect is what you see.
And, you see Israel standing.
Yes, you see the european’s new technique of using lawyers. Instead of railway cars, that carted off half of Europe’s Jews to concentration camps.
And, you know hitler ended up inside his bunker. While germany was ripped down to ashes. And, there are still pressures surrounding Israel where mayhem reigns. It’s like being surrounded by forest fires.
Do you ask, from the ashes can the PHOENIX rise?
Don’t be afraid. We are all merely short term visitors.
As to obama, I’ve send this before. Incompetent. What happens when the whole story spills out? (I’ve already said he was an illegitimate birth. In the State of Washington.) Where his mother went to an unwed mother’s home. He couldn’t be adopted out because when he was born, what landed into the doctor’s hands, was a mixed race baby.
Invented? He wasn’t “Soetero” until he was six years old. What was his mother like? Well, I think she was capable of really hurting people. Including her own parents!
Here, grandma and grandpa accepted their daughter back home. With her mixed race child. And, they fell in love with their grandchild. And, what does Stanley Ann Dunham do? She marries Soetero. And, takes her son to Indonesia.
Sure. I think Barry Soetero obummer is capable of ripping people’s heart’s out.
I also think he is incompetent. But possessed those qualities that were jut the ticket. Recognized early by lantern’ed jawed Jon Fraud Kerry as being “political timber that could win the presidency.”
Yes, obama wins. Because the GOP is the stupid party.
By the way, I believe in a woman’s ability to choose an abortion. Not because she doesn’t like the sex of the baby she’s carrying. But because I look at obama, and I wish his mom had that option. Sooner rather than later.
I also think at 17 Trayvon Martin was a thug. Just like his dad. Will this story ever get told? What country do you have to go to, to get your book published? Canada?
Ah, and the bamster’s remark that “if he had a son.”
If truth be told I think he told you what he was thinking. Hidden from view, however, is that Stanley Anne Dunham was a teenager who very early on had sexual relationships. Which, today, we’d call statutory rape. She was definitely underage.
Stanley Anne Dunham even gave birth when she was 17. And, unmarried. (Back in “those days” many a father took out his shotgun. So those marriages that were made were called “shotgun weddings.”) I guess only the old people now know.
Carol – not much Israel in there. 🙂
It’s stuff like this that should remind the Israeli government not to give up one grain of sand from the land. If you’re going to hanged for a goat as a sheep, take the hanging and keep the land. Put yourself in the position of developing something the bastards in the EU dearly want, and hold it over their bloody heads. No surrender, no retreat.
[…] Nor could Palestinians turning their young adults into walking guided missiles. [Read the full article] […]