EU Reveals its True Colors

by Peter Martino
July 24, 2013 at 5:00 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3867/eu-israel-directive

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The EU guidelines are clearly anti-Semitic: they are a unique set of guidelines crafted for the occasion of targeting Jews. The EU does not ask similar guarantees of China for Tibet, Turkey for Cyprus, or Indonesia for Western Papua.

Last week, the European Union issued guidelines regarding the use of EU funds in Israel. From now on, Israeli institutions cooperating with the EU or benefitting from EU funding must demonstrate that they have no direct or indirect links to Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights. The guidelines, drawn up by the EU bureaucracy in Brussels, bind the EU, a supranational organization of 28 European nations, and one of the world's largest donors of development aid. The guidelines also forbid any funding, cooperation, awarding of scholarships, research funds or prizes to anyone residing in Jewish settlements in Israeli territories outside Israel's 1967 borders.
Only the 500,000 Jewish inhabitants of Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are singled out in this respect. The EU guidelines are clearly anti-Semitic: they are a unique set of guidelines crafted for the occasion of targeting Jews. The EU does not ask similar guarantees of Chinese institutions regarding their links with Chinese occupied Tibet, nor does the EU forbid any funding, cooperation, awarding of scholarships, research funds or prizes to ethnic Chinese residing in Tibet. Neither has the EU issued similar guidelines regarding Turkey and Turkish occupied Northern Cyprus, Morocco and Moroccan occupied Western Sahara, Indonesia and Indonesian occupied Western Papua, or territorial disputes anywhere else in the world.
In issuing the guidelines, the EU has come out in full support of the so-called "BDS" movement, which advocates "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions" against the Jewish presence in Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
The EU decided to draw up the guidelines last December, shortly after a group of 22 political NGOs, all of them supporting BDS, called on Brussels to join the BDS actions. Ironically, many of these political NGOs, despite their involvement in a delegitimization campaign against Israel, have themselves for years been beneficiaries of millions of euros of EU money. In effect, the EU has been funding political NGOs whose main objective it was to pressure the EU member states into adopting anti-Semitic policies.

A Swedish poster urging the boycott of Israeli products. (Source: Creap)

That a supposedly politically neutral organization, such as the EU, sponsors political groups that aim to force this organization to adopt certain policies is in itself irregular. As Prof. Gerald Steinberg of NGO Monitor points out, "The new EU guidelines are evidence of the influence of political NGOs – some funded by the EU – on the EU's policies. The practical results are worrisome and reflect a faulty and one-sided agenda."
However, that these policies are directed against one specific ethnic group, namely Jews, makes them not just irregular and worrisome, but outrageous. And the fact that taxpayers' money is used to this end, including taxes paid by the Jewish citizens of the EU states, makes them shameful and repulsive.
Given the EU's support for politicized attacks against Israel and its discrimination against, for example, Jews living in East Jerusalem, the EU can no longer be considered a neutral body in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The new EU guidelines bolster the Palestinian claim to all territories east of the 1967 borders. The guidelines have angered Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who said: "We will not accept any outside diktat about our borders." The EU guidelines are not helpful to the peace process either, since they attempt to predetermine the outcome of negotiations before the Palestinians even agree to sit at the negotiating table. There is little doubt that the EU diplomats are aware of that. They also know that the 1967 borders, which confine the state of Israel to the territory west of the 1949 armistice line, make the borders of the State of Israel militarily virtually indefensible. It is also clear that if the Golan Heights are returned to Syria, these strategic lands will fall into the hands of either Hezbollah or al-Qaida – organizations which have sworn to destroy Israel and drive the Jews into the sea.
Yet, that seems to be how the EU would love to have Israel: Indefensible and as small as possible. The EU guidelines indicate that Brussels denies Israel the right to an adequate and effective self-defense.
Considering the immense suffering which many of the current EU member states inflicted on the Jews seventy years ago, Brussels, rather than undermining the safety of the Jewish State, should insist on guaranteeing Israel a right to safe and viable borders. Sadly, by issuing guidelines steeped in anti-Semitism, it is doing exactly the opposite.

Related Topics: Israel | Peter Martino

Palestinians: U.S. Paving The Way For Third Intifada

by Khaled Abu Toameh
July 24, 2013 at 4:00 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3876/palestinians-third-intifada

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Other Palestinians say that Abbas will return to the talks for a number of months, after which he will once again pull out and hold Israel fully responsible for the failure of the peace process. Doing that would facilitate Abbas's original plan to embark on unilateral measures, such as seeking full membership of a Palestinian state in the United Nations.

More than three years after he decided to boycott peace talks with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas finally agreed last week to return to the negotiating table.
Abbas's decision came after a series of meetings with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who took it upon himself, ever since he assumed office, to revive the stalled peace talks.
Kerry's dramatic announcement last Friday in the Jordanian capital of Amman about the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks did not come as a surprise to many Palestinians, especially those familiar Abbas's performance.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Amman, Jordan, on June 29, 2013. (Source: U.S. Department of State)

By agreeing to resume the peace talks with Israel, Abbas is taking a big gamble.
His critics argue that Abbas dropped all his previous conditions for resuming the peace talks, particularly a full cessation of settlement construction and Israeli recognition of the pre-1967 lines.
The critics claim that all what Abbas received from Kerry were "verbal assurances" that Israel would accept his conditions. The critics maintain that in the eyes of Abbas's people, the absence of written assurances from the Americans will undermine his credibility.
Abbas's decision has already earned him the wrath of many Palestinians, including members of his Fatah faction.
With the exception of Fatah, all PLO factions have come out against the resumption of the peace talks under Kerry's terms. These factions include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Peoples' Party, in addition to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Kerry's announcement came exactly 24 hours after PLO officials held a stormy meeting in Ramallah during which they refused to support the idea of resuming the peace talks unless Israel accepted all their demands.
Among Palestinians, it was impossible to find one individual or faction or movement that welcomed Kerry's announcement about the resumption of the peace talks.
For now, Abbas appears to be determined to swim against the tide, prompting many Palestinians to denounce him for committing "political suicide."
So what drove Abbas to say yes to Kerry?
Palestinians in Ramallah said this week that Abbas was being "dragged" against his will to the talks with Israel.
"President Abbas could no longer tolerate the immense pressure put on him by Kerry," explained a Palestinian Authority official.
The official said that Kerry had "threatened" to hold Abbas responsible for the failure of his mission to revive the peace process -- a threat that apparently scared the Palestinian Authority president into softening his position.
Some Palestinian officials have also talked about another threat made by Kerry -- this time to suspend financial aid or impose economic sanctions against the Palestinian Authority. That threat also left Abbas in a state of panic, the officials said.
Other Palestinians, however, believe that Abbas's decision is no more than a clever political gambit. They say that Abbas will return to the peace talks for a number of months, after which he will once again pull out and hold Israel fully responsible for the failure of the peace process.
Abbas will pull out of the talks once he realizes that Israel is not going to accept all his demands, foremost a full withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines and the "right of return" for Palestinians to their former homes inside Israel.
Pulling out of the negotiations and blaming Israel for "obstructing" peace would facilitate Abbas's original plan to embark on unilateral measures such as seeking full membership of a Palestinian state in the United Nations and its agencies.
The last time Israel was blamed for the failure of the peace process was in the summer of 2000, when Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat rejected former Prime Minister Ehud Barak's offer at the botched Camp David summit.
Arafat returned to Ramallah to tell Palestinians that Israel does not want peace. A few weeks later the second intifada erupted, claiming the lives of thousands of Israeli and Palestinians.
The same scenario is likely to be repeated when and if Abbas walks out of the Kerry-sponsored peace talks -- an action meaning a third intifada might be on its way.
U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton's attempt at the time to force Arafat to make peace with Israel was what paved the way for the second intifada. Kerry, by forcing Abbas to agree to something that most Palestinians are not willing to accept, appears to be moving in the same direction.

Related Topics: Khaled Abu Toameh

Christian Suffering Under Jihadi Extremism
Muslim Persecution of Christians: April, 2013

by Raymond Ibrahim
July 24, 2013 at 3:30 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3875/christian-suffering-under-jihadi-extremism

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"The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has again declared that it is 'necessary to destroy all the churches in the region.'"

Before Egypt's President Muhammad Morsi was ousted, April was one of the worst months for Christian Copts there. On April 5 near Cairo, when a longstanding feud between a Christian family and a Muslim family—based on male Muslims sexually harassing Christian girls—culminated in the violent deaths of six Christians, including two of the participants, a Christian and a Muslim, being set on fire, and local Muslims went on another "collective punishment" spree. It resulted in the injury of at least 20 other Copts, an Evangelical church being set on fire, and an attack on a Coptic church, Two days later, after Copts had mourned their dead in the St. Mark Cathedral—Coptic Christianity's holiest site and home to the Coptic pope—Muslim mobs, who had waited outside, launched yet another attack—aided by state security forces. Eyewitnesses said as many as 40-50 tear gas canisters targeted the mourners, many of whom were women and children hiding in the cathedral. Two more Copts were killed and many dozens wounded as other officers stood by while the Muslim mob tried to destroy the cathedral.

Muslim "youth" climb to the roof of a building adjacent to St. Mark Cathedral to attack it. To the left, a man winds to hurl a projectile at it. And in the white circle to the right, high-ranking Egyptian officials and security stand by watching (easily recognizable by their hats and helmets). Source: RaymondIbrahim.com

On one Friday after prayers, the Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque in Cairo was turned into a "torture chamber" for Egyptians, many of whom were Christians, protesting the Muslim Brotherhood. One of the victims, Amir Ayad, a Christian, said he was severely beaten before being left for dead at the side of the road. He suffered a fractured skull, a broken arm, bleeding in his right eye and pellet wounds. Coptic Christian children, mostly boys, were targeted for kidnapping and held for ransom; one 6-year-old, after his family had paid the Muslim kidnapper, was killed. And a video appeared on Arabic-language websites showing a crowd of Muslims in Egypt assaulting and raping two Christian women on a crowded street and in broad daylight. Throughout, the women scream in terror as the men shout Islamic slogans such as "Allahu Akbar!" "["Allah is Greater!"] None of the many passersby intervenes in any way.
Also in April, during Easter week in Nigeria, Muslim herdsmen launched a series of raids on Christian villages, killing at least 80 Christians. Most of those slain were either children or the elderly. Over 200 Christian homes were destroyed, eight churches burned, and 4,500 Christians displaced. According to a pastor present at the time, "It was a helpless situation, as no Christians had any weapon to fight back. Women, children, and the elderly who were not able to escape were shot and killed. Luckily, all my children are in school, so this made it easier for our escape from the Muslim attackers. We sneaked away in the midst of the confusion and trekked for more than 20 kilometers [12 miles] to find a place to stay."
Categorized by theme, the rest of April's Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:

Church Attacks

Central African Republic: A number of church buildings were attacked and the homes of Christians looted in the aftermath of a bloody coup by Sharia-adherent Muslim rebels. During the chaos, as in a standard jihad, Christian property was targeted for plundering, while Muslim property was spared. The leader of the Muslim rebels, Michel Djotodia, "assumed the presidency from the ousted François Bozizé, becoming the predominantly Christian nation's first Muslim president." According to one Christian, "We are no longer at home. They pillage our goods which are then sold by the Muslims, who export them."
Indonesia: Local officials, at the behest of Islamist forces, demolished the Batak Protestant Church building in West Java and threatened to close others, causing hundreds of Christians to protest in the streets. Once again, as happens with increasing regularity in Indonesia, congregation members then held services in the street, near the site of the destroyed church. As the Morning Star News added: Indonesian officials routinely delay or deny church building permits… thus providing Islamic extremists a pretext for protests and attacks." Newspapers covering the event posted photos of "church members in tears—singing hymns, crying and begging local officials not to demolish their facility. Hundreds of police and army officers guarded the area while Muslim militants, shouting Koranic verses, cheered the excavator."
Saudi Arabia: Apparently once again "The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia—the top Islamic official in the country of Saudi Arabia—has [again] declared that it is 'necessary to destroy all the churches of the region." (First reported here over a year ago.)
Sudan: In the latest of a series of moves that have put pressure on Christians, a Muslim government minister announced that no new licenses will be granted for church buildings; he claimed that the existing churches are sufficient for the number of worshippers. Building churches has, in fact, been disallowed since South Sudan seceded in July 2011; the Islamist government of Khartoum responded by making the lives of Christians in Sudan even more difficult than usual. Days before this latest measure, the government deported a senior church leader and two expatriate missionaries who had been working with children in Khartoum. No reason was given. The government has also demolished countless church buildings on the pretext of paperwork irregularities.
Turkey: A 13^th century church building, the Hagia Sophia of Trabizon (not to be confused with Constantinople's famous Hagia Sophia) is set to become a mosque again.
After the Ottoman conquest it had been turned from a church into a mosque, but later, under Turkey's secularist President, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and apparently due to its "great historical and cultural significance" for Christians, it had been turned into a museum. Local authorities decreed that its Christian frescoes must again be covered in preparation for its reopening as a mosque. [Update: As of July, the Hagia Sophia of Trabizon has become a functioning mosque.]

Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism

Indian Kashmir: In Srinagar, a Muslim mob attacked two men, five women and two children, all of British origin, on the accusation that they were preaching Christianity. The mob also threw stones at their vehicles and tried to destroy their home. The police, however, when they arrived, arrested the two men on, according to Asia News, "false charges of forced conversions." The local imam told police that, "if they try to convert anyone, I will prevent it at all costs." According to a Christian close to the case, "The false and defamatory accusations of the imam and the complicity of the police in arresting these Christians are a serious threat to religious freedom, a right guaranteed by the Constitution of India." Also in Srinagar, another Muslim mob attacked a Christian-children's home, beat the staff and visitors, tried to kill the pastor and kidnap the children, destroyed property, and killed the home's pet dog—again on the accusation that the group running the home was converting Muslim children to Christianity.
Somalia: Muslims from the Islamic organization Al Shabaab ("The Youth") shot to death 42-year-old Fartun Omar, a widow and mother of five, for converting to Christianity. Months earlier, they had killed her husband for the same "crime," and had been hunting for the wife, who, after abandoning Islam, had gone in hiding. She leaves behind five orphaned children. Separately, Al Shabaab Muslims also seized Hassan Gulled, 25, for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity, and imprisoned him, and tortured him. According to local sources, "Al Shabaab have been torturing him to see whether he would deny his Christian faith. Since last week, no information has surfaced concerning Gulled. There is a possibility that he could have been killed."
Tanzania: After a visit by an evangelist, Lukia Khalid, a Muslim mother of three, and nearly seven months pregnant, converted to Christianity; she later said: "My husband asked me whether I had left Islam, to which I said 'Yes.' He threatened to kill me if I was to stay with him. I then decided to escape that night with my three children to a neighbor's house…. We left only with the clothes that we were wearing. The command was so urgent that we could not wait any longer. We had to leave immediately." Unable to pay school fees and supplies without her husband, the children have stopped attending school.

Dhimmitude

[General Abuse of Non-Muslims as Second-Class "Citizens," or Dhimmis]

Iran: A new report, based on interviews with 31 Christians and produced by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, has found "that the authorities consistently treat standard Christian practices, such as being a member of a house church or attending a Christian conference, as criminal acts. Although the Iranian government claims to respect the rights of its recognised religious minorities, it does not do so in practice. The report found that Christian converts and members of unregistered churches are denied the right freely to practise their faith, and that they face violations of their right to life through extrajudicial killings and even execution for apostasy (though only one Christian convert is known to have been executed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution)."
Pakistan: According to the Morning Star News, "Incited by calls from mosque loudspeakers after a dispute between Muslim and Christian youths, which started when Muslims told Christians not to play music [forbidden in Islam] a Muslim mob attacked a Christian neighborhood in Gujranwala today, injuring at least five Christians and damaging a church and dozens of shops and vehicles…. A resident of Francis Colony, where 2,000 Christian families have settled in the overwhelmingly Muslim-majority country, said police bias was evident in today's attack. 'The police was doing what it does best – nothing!' said Asif Barkat, who received minor injuries as he and other Christians tried to defend themselves. 'Their bias towards Christians is quite evident, because when the Muslims were raiding our church and property, they just watched, but when we confronted them, they started hitting us with batons and used live ammunition to deter us.'" Separately, two unidentified men tried by force to stop the car of the president of All Pakistan Minorities, Saleem Khursheed Khobar, a Christian, and when that failed, opened fire on him. As with other Christian human rights activists who have been assassinated in Pakistan, Khobar is being hounded for vocally representing the nation's downtrodden religious minorities: "I am being threatened and have gone into hiding to protect myself," he said from an undisclosed location. "Law enforcement agencies know that I am being followed. My whole family is under threat but the government doesn't care."
Syria: Christians continued to be targeted by Islamic rebels, especially for kidnapping. Among those abducted were two bishops, Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Bishop Paul Yazigi. An armed group of Chechen jihadis stopped their car, killed the driver, and took the two bishops hostage. Meanwhile, thousands of Christians continued to flee Syria. In in one instance, 500 crossed the border into Turkey, where church officials are considering building a "tent city" to house the refugees. Adds AINA: "Assyrians and other Christians in Syria have been disproportionately affected by the war, and have been targeted by the Muslims rebels. The Muslim Jihadists have kidnapped Assyrians for ransom, attacked places of worship and created a climate of fear, forcing many Assyrians to abandon their homes and villages and seek safety in Turkey."
Turkey: Erdal Dogan, a human rights defender, who played an important role in the trial of the 2007 Malatya massacre, against those Muslims who tortured and slaughtered three Christian men working in a Bible publishing house, "remained in life danger Friday, April 12, after receiving death threats," including from the defendants, one of whom threatened him during a hearing.

About this Series

Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2) To show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws that criminalize and punish with death those who "offend" Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like dhimmis, or second-class, "tolerated" citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to India in the East, and throughout the West wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War in Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute, April 2013). He is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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