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This article by Dr.Gerstenfeld “Trump’s Peace Plan and 37 senior European Hypocrites”  is a much-extended version of the one first published at Algemeiner…

 

Of course, Finland’s openly hostile to Israel former FM, Erkki Tuomioja, was one of the signees to the letter.

 

Trump’s Peace Plan and 37 senior European Hypocrites

 

Manfred Gerstenfeld

U.S. President Trump’s peace plan has yet to be published. This hasn’t stopped 37 European politicians – largely “has beens” — from publishing a joint letter against it in the frequently anti-Israeli UK Guardian daily on April 15. The signatories criticize the U.S. writing: “Unfortunately, the current U.S. administration has departed from longstanding U.S. policy and distanced itself from established international legal norms. It has so far recognized only one side’s claims to Jerusalem and demonstrated a disturbing indifference to Israeli settlement expansion.” The signatories want a Palestinian state to be created next to Israel and assume that this is not part of the Trump plan. The letter says that “despite uncertainty as to if and when the plan will be released, it is crucial for Europe to be vigilant and act strategically.”1

 

In the heading of the article the signatories urged the EU to reject any U.S. Middle East plan unless it is fair to Palestinians. What fairness means to people who acclaim and reward murderers of civilians and name streets, sports facilities and so on after the most revered killers is not explained in the letter.

 

A quick look at the signatories identifies a number of well-known anti-Israeli inciters. Among them: former Finnish socialist foreign minister, Erkki Tuomioja. He compared in an interview Israeli defensive measures to the Nazi persecution of European Jewry: “It is quite shocking that some implement the same kind of policy toward the Palestinians which they themselves were victims of in the 1930s.”2

 

Former Danish foreign minister and speaker of the parliament, socialist Morgens Lykketoft said on television when Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi was murdered in 2001 that “there was no difference between that assassination and Israel’s targeted killing of terrorists.3 Another signatory is former Danish foreign minister, Martin Lidegaard, who threatened Israel with sanctions from the European Union in 2014 if the indirect talks between Hamas and Israel did not yield significant Israeli concessions.4

 

Lena Hjelm-Wallén, a former Swedish social democrat foreign minister was also a signatory of an anti-Israeli letter in 2014 of people who arrogantly called themselves “European eminent persons.” One suggestion of the letter was that the Arab Peace Plan composed in 2002 could form a pillar of a new EU approach.5 Yet another signatory of both letters was the conservative Benita Ferrero-Waldner, former European Commissioner for External Relations and former foreign minister of Austria. Yet another double signatory is socialist former NATO secretary general and Spanish foreign minister Javier Solana.

 

When Carl Bildt of the moderate party was foreign minister of Sweden in 2009, the country’s largest daily, the socialist Aftonbladet published an article by Donald Boström. It claimed that the IDF was killing Palestinians and harvesting their organs for transplants in collusion with the Israeli medical establishment. The author had to admit that he had no concrete evidence for his article.6 Bildt when solicited to condemn this statement refused to do so. He said that freedom of press is part of the Swedish constitution. He also told his country’s ambassador in Israel to remain silent on the issue.7

 

The only German signatory is the former foreign minister and ex-leader of its socialist party, Sigmar Gabriel. He accused Israel of being an apartheid state. Gabriel apologized for this statement only many months later. Former Irish President Mary Robinson co-wrote in 2014 a pro-Hamas letter jointly with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in the Guardian in 2014. It said: “Only by recognizing its legitimacy as a political actor – one that represents a substantial portion of the Palestinian people – can the west begin to provide the right incentives for Hamas to lay down its weapons:”8 With the aforementioned names the list of anti-Israel inciters among the signatories has far from been exhausted.

 

Some of the signatories also targeted Jews. In January 2002 the major antisemite eruption in France, largely by Muslims had already been going on for well over a year. Socialist foreign minister Hubert Védrine implied understanding for the Muslim violence against Jews stating: “One doesn’t necessarily have to be shocked that young Frenchmen of immigrant origins have compassion for the Palestinians and are extremely excited seeing what is happening.”9

 

The Belgian liberal Karel de Gucht, a former Belgian foreign minister, said in 2010, “Don’t underestimate the power of the Jewish Lobby on Capitol Hill.… You shouldn’t underestimate the grip it has on American politics, no matter whether it’s Republicans or Democrats.”10 Such a list of signatories is rarely complete without a Jew. In this case it is David Miliband, a former UK Labour foreign minister. He would have done better to be more actively involved in fighting the widespread antisemitism in his party, which leader he once wanted to become.

 

The signatories of the letter almost all hail from countries which supported the decision of the Board of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) to accept the working definition of antisemitism.11 This text says that manifestations of antisemitism might include “the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.” The definition says that applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not demanded of any other democratic nation is an antisemitic act.

 

Such double standards and manifestations of antisemitism occur every year at the General Assembly of the United Nations. There is no other nation which has been attacked by anyway near the many hundreds of resolutions against it as Israel has in the past decades. This despite the fact that many UN members are guilty of extreme war crimes and human rights violations. There has not even been one resolution against Hamas.12 Many of the signatories of the letter to the Guardian were ministers in their countries. Quite a few of them are responsible for their participation in their country’s antisemitic acts when voting for the huge number of anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations.

 

Almost all signatories of the letter come from countries where antisemitism has greatly increased in the last five years. This can be seen from the findings of a study in the Eurobarometer series published by the European Commission in January 2019. It is titled Perceptions of Antisemitism.13

 

One wonders what the signatories of the letter to the Guardian have done to combat the rising antisemitism in their countries. If anything at all it has not been successful. Instead they continue their obsession with promoting the interests of the Palestinian Authority which rewards the murderers of Israelis, many of which are civilians. There is little reason to believe that if the Palestinians get a state, as the signatories want, the terrorist murders of Israelis will stop. For many centuries, antisemitism has been deeply interwoven with European culture. The letter of the 37 senior European hypocrites in the Guardian reflects that culture.

 

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