That’s captures in essence the Left’s entire Martian mindset concerning the Jewish state.
Diplomacy: Israel is from Venus, the EU from Mars
The brouhaha following European Parliament President Martin Schulz’s speech to the Knesset this week illustrates the dysfunctionality in Israel-EU ties.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz began an hourlong press briefing over scrambled eggs, lox and coffee with journalists in Jerusalem’s King David Hotel on Wednesday, joking that this would certainly be one of the most difficult meetings of his four-day trip.
Boy, did he get that wrong.
Granted, Schulz fielded questions from foreign correspondents about why the EU does not put more pressure on Israel, or why he hedges in declaring loudly and proudly that settlements are illegal. And he also took questions from Israeli journalists about what the EU was doing to press the Palestinians to be more flexible, or why the Europeans fixate on West Bank settlements but not occupied northern Cyprus or the Western Sahara. But all that was nothing compared to the angry reaction he faced later in the day in the Knesset.
There, tucked into a basically supportive and sympathetic speech about Israel – replete with remorse for the Holocaust, admiration for Israel’s achievements and pledges of allegiance to Israel’s security – Schulz told about a meeting he held with “young people in Ramallah.”
“One of the questions these young people asked me which I found most moving – although I could not check the exact figures – was this: How can it be that an Israeli is allowed to use 70 liters of water per day, but a Palestinian only 17?” And then the floodgates opened. Bayit Yehudi MK Mordechai Yogev