Ha’aretz broke the draft of their resolution, which recognizes a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Sweden insists it will represent and commit all 27 EU members. An utterly devastating diplomatic game-changer.
Israel will focus on how the resolution locks in unilateral Palestinian moves in explicit violation of the Oslo accords, a shameless bait-and-switch that began with promises of EU coordination in exchange for Israeli territorial concessions. One Jerusalem just blogged it, honing in on the gall it takes for an international organization to carve up the territory of a sovereign and democratic country:
The Europeans have become aggressively active in a desperate attempt to save the collapsing government of Palestinian Authority. Ever since Hamas won the “elections” in Gaza, the PA has been fighting an uphill battle to stay relevant. All indicators are reporting that with each day the PA and its President Abbas are growing weaker and weaker… But it is important to understand that this is not just a debating point. Israel is now faced with a very serious challenge. How can it function in an international community that feels it can impose its will on Israel without consent of this democratic government.
All true and fair enough. But there’s also the small matter of the EU’s breathtaking moral hypocrisy. Arabs who left Israel in 1948 apparently still have a colorable claim to the “right of return” five generations later. But Jews who were ethnically cleansed from the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem after thousands of years of continuous habitation – they’re expected to stay cleansed just like the gleeful Jordanian war criminals of the time intended:
At the turn of the 20th century the Jewish population of the quarter reached 19,000… In 1948 [its]… 2,000 Jews was besieged, and forced to leave en masse. Colonel Abdullah el Tell, local commander of the Jordanian Arab Legion… described the destruction of the Jewish Quarter: “The operations of calculated destruction were set in motion…. I knew that the Jewish Quarter was densely populated with Jews who caused their fighters a good deal of interference and difficulty…. I embarked, therefore, on the shelling of the Quarter with mortars, creating harassment and destruction…. Only four days after our entry into Jerusalem the Jewish Quarter had become their graveyard. Death and destruction reigned over it…. [By] Friday, May 28, 1948… the Jewish Quarter emerged convulsed in a black cloud – a cloud of death and agony.”…
The Jordanian commander who led the operation is reported to have told his superiors: “For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews’ return here impossible.”
Then again, Sweden’s a country where calls to “kill the Jews” are – as a matter of juridical precedent – political opinions about Middle East policymaking. When other EU nations walked out of Ahmadinejad’s speech because of his genocidal incitement, Sweden declared him in-bounds. So it’s not exactly a surprise that they’d have some problems understanding the nuances of ethnic cleansing.
Strictly from an aesthetic perspective, though, this is a real shame. The Swedish government was doing such a fantastic job inciting venomous antisemitism via radical anti-Israel NGOs, the largest of which gets 90% of its budget from the government and is utterly insane. Their media organs were publishing medieval blood libels that go global. Why’d they have to go and spoil the elegance of being unofficially pro-ethnic cleansing by making it all formal and stuff?
References:
* Haaretz Exclusive: EU draft document on division of Jerusalem [Ha'aretz]
* Sweden: East J’lem declaration will represent all 27 member states [YNet]
* Europe Moves To Divide Jerusalem [One Jerusalem]
* Netanyahu To Obama: Actually, We’re Going To Keep Letting Jews Build Homes In Jerusalem [MR]
* Sweden’s Strange “Neutrality” Continues [IsraPundit]
* Sweden: Ahmadinejad did not cross ‘red line’ with UN speech [YNet]
* Anti-Semitism in Swedish Media Fuelled by Government Funds for Radical NGOs [NGO Monitor]
* Diakonia – Sweden’s Largest Humanitarian NGO – Funds Radical Anti-Israel Agenda [NGO Monitor]
* Ministers fume about Swedish story [JPost]
* Anatomy of a Swedish Blood Libel [WSJ]
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* Israel Coverage
* Diplomacy Coverage
* Europe Coverage
