ISRAEL
SHOULD STOP COURTING EUROPE, TURN TO ASIA
EUROPEAN officials and EUROPEAN
civil society often like to think of themselves as the pinnacle of human rights
and morality. In reality, EUROPE has become a moral vacuum and, once again, a
breeding ground for casual hate, racism, and Antisemitism. This has become
clear not only through the example of sophisticated elites like former IRISH
President MARY ROBINSON, BRITISH Labor politician JEREMY CORBYN, or DANIEL
BERNARD, the late FRENCH ambassador to the UNITED KINGDOM, but also in the
increasing EUROPEAN obsession with stable, democratic ISRAEL, while countries
surrounding ISRAEL degenerate into anarchy, generate millions of refugees,
promote genocide, and incite and sponsor terrorism.
ANTISEMITISM - OLD EUROPE VERSUS NEW EUROPE
A lot can be written
about why so many in EUROPE — or, for that matter, within the OBAMA
administration and increasingly among other Democratic stalwarts — have become
so hostile to ISRAEL and its ability to defend itself against threats ranging
from HAMAS, to HEZBOLLAH, to ISLAMIC State and AL QAEDA affiliates in SYRIA and
the SINAI. Perhaps it was the end of conscription in many countries which
widened the divide between those with military service and understanding, and
those without. Perhaps it was the insulation that developed from having outside
powers guarantee security so that individual states seldom had to. Perhaps it’s
the legacy of EUROPEAN anti-SEMITISM, the most virulent kind, which can no
longer be masked by EUROPEAN smug self-righteousness. And perhaps it’s the “old
EUROPE, new EUROPE” divide once described by Secretary of Defense DONALD
RUMSFELD. POLES, CZECHS, and ROMANIANS remember what it is like to live under
tyranny while time has diluted “Old Europe’s” understanding of reality.
ISRAEL has long
considered itself almost a EUROPEAN country; the EUROPEAN immigration that
marked early Zionism shaped that character, even if geography and immigration
from TURKEY, IRAN, INDIA, and the ARAB world also bestowed ISRAEL with a MIDDLE
EASTERN character. Indeed, TEL AVIV is much like ALEXANDRIA and BEIRUT once
were, and like ISTANBUL still is, at least for the time being: a veritable
mixing grounds of east and west.
INDIA
AND ISRAEL - COMMON GROUNDS
For too long, however, ISRAEL
has if not ignored ASIA than put it on the back-burner. Sure, there was been
sporadic outreach to CHINA, but this was both half-hearted and misguided: When
it comes to the MIDDLE EAST, BEIJING is the ultimate realist. Immediate
commercial concerns means everything, broader principle mean little if
anything.
Background
Information: Israel China
JUNCTION BETWEEN
CONTINENTS
CHINA’S ECONOMIC AND
STRATEGIC FOOTPRINT IN ISRAEL IS GROWING
A MARRIAGE MADE IN
HEAVEN, EXCEPT FOR ENERGY ISSUES
INDIA—the world’s largest
democracy—was largely hostile to the JEWISH state for the same reason it was
hostile to the UNITED STATES. INDIAN nationalist diplomat VENGALIL KRISHNAN
KRISHNA MENON coined the term ‘non-alignment’ in a 1953 UNITED NATIONS speech,
and the following year JAWAHARLAL NEHRU, INDIA’S first prime minister,
co-founded the Non-Aligned Movement. In theory, it sought a third path separate
from the Cold War rivalry between the SOVIET UNION and the UNITED STATES but in
practice it was marked by disproportionate hostility to the WEST.
Non-alignment, a fondness
for socialism, and a suffocating bureaucracy hostile both to direct foreign
investment and free market enterprises long restrained INDIA’S economic
potential. While INDIA still has a way to go, Prime Minister NARENDRA MODI has
sought to bring INDIA’S economy, political culture, and foreign into the 21st
century. He recognizes how much INDIA and ISRAEL have in common. They are both
democracies in a region where democracies otherwise have not thrived. And ISLAMIST
radicals target them both. In the case of both, land disputes — be they have JERUSALEM
and its environs in ISRAEL’S case, or the KASHMIR in INDIA’S — are only an
excuse for a far more murderous agenda.
BIAS UN HUMAN RIGHT
COUNCIL
Earlier this year, MODI announced
that he would become the first INDIAN leader to visit ISRAEL. Among tech-savvy
INDIANS, the twitter hashtag #IndiaWithIsrael is trending. Nor does it seem
that MODI’S looming visit will be the end-all and be-all of warming ties. As
COMMENTARY readers know, the UN Human Rights Council has long been a cesspool
of anti-ISRAEL and anti-SEMITIC bias. Consider these statistics of cumulative
Council condemnations from its founding in 2006 to the present:
ISRAEL
has been condemned more than 60 times, yet slave-holding MAURITANIA,
blogger-whipping SAUDI ARABIA, journalist-repressing TURKEY,
freedom-extinguishing CHINA, migrant worker-killing QATAR, and expansionist RUSSIA
have faced no condemnation.
Condemning ISRAEL has
become a knee-jerk reaction around the world and, for decades, it has been INDIA’S
position as well. But on Friday, July 3, INDIA shocked the Council by
abstaining on its condemnation of ISRAELI actions in last year’s GAZA War. Now
an abstention isn’t the same as a vote against, but clearly INDIA-ISRAEL
relations are on the upswing, or could be if ISRAELI leaders are willing to
work hard to cultivate them.
EYEING EAST – STRATEGIC
AND TACTIC ADVANTAGE FOR ISRAEL
But INDIA is not alone. The
AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL & JEWISH Affairs Council (AIJAC) has long sought to
cultivate ties between ISRAEL and other SOUTHEAST ASIAN countries—INDONESIA,
THAILAND, SINGAPORE, the PHILIPPINES, and even MALAYSIA. The momentum is
promising, as have been the results considering the relatively small scale. If
ISRAEL made a concerted effort to cultivate these ties, they might find a much
more receptive audience than in past years. Not only would this create a
strategic buffer, but it might also correct the narrative that all MUSLIMS
embrace the radical, anti-peace positions put forward by more rejectionist ARAB
states and EUROPEAN and AMERICAN proponents of the Boycott, Divestment, and
Sanctions (BDS) movement. After all, INDONESIA is the largest MUSLIM country on
earth by population, and INDIA the second largest, even though it is not even
majority MUSLIM.
SOUTH EAST ASIAN
COUNTRIES FACING THE SAME ISLAMIST TERROR THREATS AS HAS ISRAEL FOR DECADES
Such diplomacy need not
be an either-or scenario, but just as WASHINGTON navel-gazes and forgets that
the UNITED STATES and the targets of our interest are not alone in the sandbox,
so, too, do EUROPEANS forget that they are not the world’s moral barometer or
the doyens of the elite club with which everyone wants favor. Not only is SOUTHEAST
ASIA booming as many of its countries largely abandon ruinous socialist
practices and authoritarianism, but many now also face the same ISLAMIST terror
threat which ISRAEL has been confronting for decades. There is a convergence of
interests; let us hope that ISRAELI officials stop wasting undue energy on the
Sisyphean task of pleasing EUROPEAN officials inclined to dislike them and
recognize that such efforts might lead to greater results with a new eastern
push.
Adapted by Geopolitical Analysis
and monitoring from the original article written by Michael Rubin
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