Why the EU and UN Despise Israel?

 

Why do the European Union and the United Nations and so many others hate Israel? It is obvious, it did not fail. When the victorious powers of World War I decided to include forming a Jewish State in the ancient homelands of the Jews, they fully expected to be able to send all their Jews to this land where nobody had succeeded in forming a viable state. Not the Greeks, not the Romans, not the Byzantines, not any of the different Islamic rulers and thus it was expected the Jews would meet a similar fate. The expectation was the Jews would meet misery and hopelessness and surrender and need to beg the rest of the world to allow them to return to their subservience and being a kept people who lived at the mercy and generosity of others. After the Holocaust the Western World did feel the guilt for not at least taking even the most basic of attempts to stop the slaughter by bombing the rail lines leading to the concentration camps or taking the better option of allowing the Jews to emigrate from Germany and following it up with taking the Jews from the expanding Nazi controlled areas. The British may have had the greatest guilt, though their actions would never reveal such, as they refused to take the Jews and shut down entry for the Jews to the Mandate Region from which they had been tasked to allow the formation of a Jewish State by cutting the number of Jews to immigrate between 1933 to 1939 to a maximum of seventy-five-thousand each year and made even meeting that number as difficult as possible. The Nazis offered to force their Jews to be sent to the Mandate lands under British rule which the British refused claiming that the German Jews were the problem of the German government and the British had no concern on what the Germans did with them as long as it did not foist them on the British. The United States showed their colors by refusing to permit additional Germans even if they were Jewish as they had quotas, which were never filled but still the State Department, and Immigrations refused to accept the German Jews and when the MS St. Louis was refused to disembark the nine-hundred-thirty-seven Jewish refugees at Havana despite their having passports and complete paperwork as the Cuban government reneged on their offer and while the doomed ship slowly returned to Germany traveling slowly along the east coast of the United States continually petitioning for entrance pleading in radio messages, the United States government refused to permit them to enter the United States and provided the MS St. Louis with escort vessels to assure that nobody attempted to jump ship and swim to the shores of the United States. Eventually, the United Kingdom agreed to take 288 of the passengers who disembarked and traveled to the UK by other steamers. After much negotiation by Captain Schröder, the remaining 619 passengers were allowed to disembark at Antwerp; 224 were accepted by France, 214 by Belgium and 181 by the Netherlands. Unfortunately for the ones accepted into European nations ended up the fate of those nations falling before the Nazi war machine.

 

 

Mandate of San Remo for French and British including actual treaty demarcations for each nation

 

 

The reasoning that the Jews would fail in making their nation work was based on two opposing principles, the first was the seemingly unyielding lands which had foiled every attempt to tame the land and make the land produce by every previous successful and highly advanced for their ages that had made all the lands under their rule into productive lands but the area set aside for the Jewish State had foiled every attempt to tame it, let alone make it support a peoples. Secondly, the Jews were inferior people scorned by every civil society and considered inferior and incapable of acting at even a normal level as compared with normal people so how would these pathetic Jews ever succeed where all others had failed before them. So, by allowing the incompetent to be gathered to work lands that were impossible was the formula for only one comprehended result, complete and utter failure where the land itself would be the death of the vast majority of the Jews allowed to emigrate there and make the remainder so appreciative of whomever took them back in and cared for their needs would receive such praise and appreciation that the Jews would finally be humbled and accept their fate as the condemnable and damned people everyone knew they were. So, it was an adventure which could only work to make the rest of the world able to validate their superiority over the Jew after they failed to make the land produce sufficiently to support the Jews and were forced into begging for somebody, namely their European superiors, to save them before they all perished. Somewhere something did not quite go as expected. But before that there was more which was committed which should have made the failure all the more probable as within the first decade the Arab world cast out almost another million Jews leaving most of them without any of their wealth and even only the remnants they could shove into suitcases and trunk lockers leaving such things as family heirlooms, their businesses, their bank accounts, and whatever else that could be stolen as at least they were allowing them to leave with their lives. This addition of almost one-million all but destitute Jews were to be an additional and unsustainable addition to what was already presumably doomed to failure. As said earlier, something went awry and things did not turn out as expected.

 

That is where the world was delivered a surprise beyond imagination, the Jews succeeded. The Jews not only succeeded but thrived and actually performed what was considered not only impossible but could only be classified as miraculous as the nascent Jewish State survived, though they did technically lose some of their lands (though they gained areas to be under their complete control in rural areas in the Galilee but lost half of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount and the Old City to Jordan. Gaza to Egypt and the Golan Heights to Syria) but managed to survive an invasion by seven Arab nations and a number of militias including one of Arabs under the banner of the Mufti of Jerusalem, the same Mufti who spent most of World War II in Berlin as a guest of the leaders of the Third Reich producing propaganda broadcasts to be transmitted into the Arab world to turn them against the allied powers. The Jews not only met every challenge and survived but thrived and brought the dessert and swamps into a land blossoming with produce, made strides in irrigation such as drip irrigation which uses water even more sparingly than normal irrigation, invented new fruits and vegetables such as cherry tomatoes, and then started winning Nobel Prizes as if growing them in their greenhouses, and finally became a tech leader in the world in nearly every science all while fighting a number of wars brought upon them by aggressions by their neighbors as well as from terrorist groups targeting them both from within and without. The challenge of draining swamps, an immediate assault by seven neighbors, and becoming a leading nation in the sciences, economics and virtually every imaginable endeavor their people decided to pursue. Basically, as far as Europe and the world bodies were concerned the impossible is what the Jews managed when returned to their ancient homelands.

 

This success of Israel, the Jewish State, and her people, blossoming in so many fields was simply something beyond possible and completely unimagined. Somehow the impossible people were thrown into a complete wastelands which many thought to be an impossible land and then the impossible happened; the lands bloomed and brought forth riches and produce beyond what anybody might have imagined and grasses that supported flocks of sheep and herds of cows, impossible but that is what came to pass. The Bible could have advised the Europeans that this would be the case as it was stated that Israel was the lands which belongs to Hashem and that He trusted the Jewish People to bring forth its wonders and for whom the land would release its fruits and blossom. The land was promised not to produce for any other peoples other than the Jews. The Europeans had to know of these predictions from in the Old Testament but their faith in the Old Testament was no longer as they had replaced it with a New Testament and a new covenant which replaced the old covenant. Well, apparently the old covenant has some life left in her and the Jews are still getting the benefit of their Promised Lands giving up her yields and abundance which this land denied all others. The land and the Jewish People radiate great benefits and wealth and even now has provided great fields of natural gas just off her shores and even potentially within her lands as well as oil, Baruch Hashem. Many might call this a miracle; I like to think of it as a promise kept by Hashem whose promises should never be doubted. There is a reason for much of two-thousand years the Jews always finished their Seder meal and prayers those special nights with the phrase, “Next year in Jerusalem” (לשנה הבאה בירושלים).

 

 

Haggadah Final Prayer and finish of Seder with Next year in Jerusalem לשנה הבאה בירושלים

 

 

The surprise may have initially been seen with a bemused amazement mixed with perhaps a small bit of admiration. But as many nerds have felt when they also show prowess at some physical or sports effort besting one of the letterman in multiple sports at some time, there is a degree of indignation and angst fueled animosity when those considered inferior prove proficient outside their textbooks, the little State of Israel has also received some less than warm regards as their successes continue and things just continue to get brighter and brighter. There are other considerations but why complicate the matter. The truth is the reasons behind much of the animosity shown towards Israel by the European Union and United Nations may never be fully understood. Granted the United Nations with its predominant Arab and Unaligned Nations voting as a single block in the General Assembly and having large representations in virtually every United Nations agencies and NGOs and the oil monies invested in souring any relations others may choose to show to Israel, the United Nations is already dangerous when it comes to all things Israel. Perhaps the United Nations single minded hatred for Israel influenced the European Union with many deciding it was easier to go along to get along and sacrificing Israel in order to improve relations with such a large majority of the rest of the world is a sacrifice seemingly worth making, especially since Israel shares her advances freely without attempting to deny even her worst enemies the use of her discoveries. Israel has even offered to instruct and work with a number of Arab nations installing and teaching them how to build, install, maintain and otherwise utilize their drip irrigation and other discoveries in agriculture which make irrigating the dessert and growing crops feasible. Unfortunately most have refused such assistance as apparently it is better to not have the capacity to conserve water while also raising crops using irrigation more efficiently is not sufficiently tempting to ease a relationship with Israel. The problem with many Islamic nations is that Israel was presumably lands which as once being ruled by Islam must, according to their interpretations of the Quran, always remain ruled by Islam. Perhaps it is a good thing that the British and Spanish never adopted this rule or they would feel they should own most of the planet between them.

 

Whether the driving animosity is a reflection of jealousy or going along with the majority to get along with the majority, ethics be damned, it matters little. The reality comes down to garner the hate of the Islamic world and the oil flow may stop; earn the disapproval of Israel is a no thrills, no chills, no downside as Israel does not hold back or victimize others just because they may not act in a friendly or respectful manner and spend too much time being critical as there can be cooperation in many areas even if the political arena is presenting difficult challenges. There are those who are critical of Israeli generosity and refusal to hold those who actively attempt to undermine and subvert their standing as a nation and consistently apply a double standard holding Israel to what might be termed a ridiculously higher standard than they hold other nations or even themselves.

 

 

Five beautiful, glorious and holy Torah Scrolls which carry near infinite wisdom and are the foundation of all Judaism and their culture and the Jewish civilization is built around the Torah and the teaching of Torah

 

 

There is a reason for holding Israel to a higher standard than other normal nations are held and it is because of the successes Israel has enjoyed, earned as they may be, and that Israel expects excellence from their people, their military and in all things the nation as a whole in order to earn their name as the chosen people for whom the swamps and rock strewn hills and desert all bloomed and produced great production beyond anything other nations had achieved. When the Jewish People proved theirs was a special relationship with these lands which had lain fallow and unproductive for nearly two-thousand years and also rose to the top in virtually every field of the sciences and humanities as well as becoming the “Start Up Nation” and a technological giant and in all these fields, to borrow a phrase often used by President Obama, punching well above their weight, with great achievement comes great expectations and the world of nations should expect more of Israel and the Israelis because they have proven that there is a society which can meet or exceed such expectations. Is it completely fair? No, of course not but who promised things would be fair. Were the years of persecutions stretching back over three-thousand years fair, of course not. So, now that the Jews have been returned to our natural lands should we expect things to be fair. We should expect things to be even more unbalanced and the world to expect things of magnificence from the state of Israel, from the nation who claims to want to be a light unto the nations. You expect to be an example for the rest of the world whether they desire it from you or not then you need to have them expect perfection or near as human beings can reach to perfection and to always demand you do better than all others and just be that light unto the nations because you meet or surpass every expectations. Our Torah tells us that we should strive to be the best that each of us can be and that we are to hold ourselves to the highest of standards so we should take any expectation raised by others as their challenge to us to accomplish such deeds. The only place where we need not listen to those detractors who would not be pleased no matter what is when they demand our surrender from the lands that were promised us by the world at the end of World War I. The world claims we must give up lands so the Arab Palestinians can have their own nation and to that we must ask then what is Jordan if not that nation. The lands east of the river were to be for the Arab Palestinians and the lands west of the river were promised for time immemorial for the Jewish State and this was the promise from the British and agreed to by the rest of the world otherwise all of what was the British Mandate should be the Jewish State. Who knows, after Islamic State decides to set their sights on Israel as their next target they will need to swallow Jordan and whatever of the Arab Palestinian PLO remains on their way to Jerusalem and Haifa and once Israel dances with the Islamic State the Russians and United States will both have one less worry on their plates.

 

Beyond the Cusp