Why Europe Hates Israel

FREEMAN E-MAIL LIST ^ | November 29, 2001 | By Bret Stephens, an editorial page writer for The Wall Street Journal Europe.

[Patria One]

(Zechariah prophesied in Jerusalem about 520-518 BC, not long after some Jews had returned from exile in Babylon. He was a contemporary of Haggai.)

"A generation later (520 B.C.), however, the Babylonian overlords had been replaced by a victorious Persian kingdom and these victors decided to allow some of the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, a task which they completed in about 516 B.C.

Jerusalem remained in a ruinous state for a long time, however, until Nehemiah, a representative of the rich Jewish community that had grown up in Babylon, returned to Jerusalem (445 B.C.). By 433 B.C., he and his followers had succeeded in rebuilding the city's walls, restoring traditional religious observances with the city precinct, and refocusing the Jewish religion on the Temple of Jerusalem.

The Book of Zechariah is a product of that period between the rebuilding of the Temple and the restoration of Jerusalem and is an illustration of how fervently the Jews awaited that restoration."

(I don't see any relationship to the British throne.)

[winslow]

Speaking as an Irishman who has lived in Ireland, the UK, Belgium and Germany.
I don't feel that all Europeans are inherently anti-semetic but IMHO many of the major Newspapers and TV stations are inclined to be more sympathetic towards the Palestians than Jews.

Quite often any act of retaliation by the IDF against Palestinian actions of terrorism is reported as being provacative or inflamatory (never mind what the "poor defenceless Palestinians" did to illicit such a response).
The fact that young Palestinians are encouraged to attack IDF forces and are sometimes injured or killed also generates sympathy for their side.

Personally I think the fact that the rest of the Arab world is sympathetic to the Palestinians also plays a major part because of their monopoly on oil.

Finally there are many Arab propaganda spin-doctors working full time to convince the press that they are oppressed victims in the whole affair.
Most of the arabs and moslems I have met personally were virulently anti-semetic and in virtually every country in Europe there is a significantly higher population of arabs/moslems than Jews. Therefore their version of events is more likely to be the one being told

[Woodkirk]

Then why does the EU and its British supporters cotinue in their support of that terrorist Arafat and his murdering PLO unless they support his goal -- which is to drive Israel into the sea.?

[Patria One]

It isn't about any inherent dislike of Jewish people. The European press hasn't been censoring the aggression against the Palestinians for 50 years.

I don't know if you are Jew or Christian, but do you really care how other people worship? I don't, but the problems in Palestine are not about how people worship or the difference in their religious beliefs, its about the way they behave.

[Woodkirk]

It has no relationship to the British Throne -- I never said it did. But it does have a message to those who choose to support those who want to drive the Jewish people from the Land that the God of Israel promised to restore to them.

[Woodkirk]

And the Palestinians are living on land that does not belong to them, and and they should behave or leave.

[Patria One]

Well, they were living there for 3-4,000 years. Maybe the European Zionists should have killed ALL of them in 1947.

You know the OT is the history of the Israelites and their relationship with God. It is not the history of all the other people in the region.

[verboten]

I have to wonder then why it is the Jews would try to set up shop again in a land that is so hostile? I mean they are not being target in Europe or America as they are in Israel? It is sort of like a black deciding to move next to a klansman. Why would one do that?

In our modern world where being a victim is a good thing then I can understand holding up the hatred they must endure as a mark of pride. But personally I would just move.

[verboten]

Europe is not overly friendly to the USA because without us, they would still be spitshining gestapo boots and Great Britain would be a Nazi Island Resort.

Well to be accurate, the part we didn't hand over to Stalin. Not to mention most of Europe and the US have adopted much of the socialist, nationalist ideals of the Nazis.

They hate Israel because... their high technology inovations have made them second only to the USA in scope.

Financed by my money and sometimes handed over by my government or stolen outright.

[Woodkirk]

The truth about the Palestinians is this: Israel has not been and is not the greatest enemy of the Palestinian people. They allow them to live on land that belongs to them. The greatest enemy of the Palestinians is their own leadership who murder anyone who wants to live at peace with Israel and the leaders of other Islamic nations who do not want the Palestinians living in their land even though they have so much territory. If the Arab nations would have accepted the 1947 U.N. resolution, the Palestinians would have had their state on the West Bank separated by a buffer zone. For 20 years from 1947 to 1967 when the Jordanians occupied the West Bank, there were no cries from any Arab for a Palestinian State. It was only when Jordan lost the territory to Israel in the Six Day War that the whines started coming from the duplicitous Arabs. The truth is that the Palestinians are pawns and the cannon fodder of the Islamic nations and others whose religious theologies are threatened by the very existence of the State of Israel which is a fulfilment of the prophecies of Scripture testifying to the fact that the God of Israel keeps His Word -- something that is foreign to the Moslem's Allah. How is it possible for the Israelis who believe in a God who keeps his Word to trust themselves to make an agreement with a people who worship a god who revels in the fact that he does not?

[Lent]

Well, they were living there for 3-4,000 years.

Stop this phony and revisionist history. You Arabs just can't stop this false "3-4000" years B.S. If I got a nickle for every lie you've told for every name you've had on this site I'd be retired by now:

 

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[AGAviator]

Of course, with [neocons] being conservatives in name only, their ideology is an inconsistent mix of ideas that favor their agenda only

Under what principles of "conservatism" does one's own country support one particular other country in its tribal and territorial disputes with its own inhabitants and its neighbors?

There are none.

[AGAviator]

HALL OF SHAME (and name) (latest iteration 'Lent')

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[Patria One]

Are you quite alright or has paranoia taken over? Haven't you every heard of Herodotus? He wrote about Palestine about 450 BC.

[veronica]

So sorry anti-Israel wingnuts.

Israel is here to stay, the USA will ALWAYS support Israel, and the Left-wing cranks in Europe, the new Nazis, can just twirl on it.

The don't much like the USA either. Jealous losers. Same as anti-Semites.

[Sabramerican]

I have to wonder then why it is the Jews....

Because, you may not understand from the many "Zionist stole the land" posts but the Land of Israel is as important to Judaism as Jesus is to Christianity.

Every synagogue on Earth, in all of history, faces Jerusalem. The covenant involves Jews doing certain things and God doing certain things includes Israel as the homeland of the Jews. Some Jewish holidays are celebrated differently- longer- outside of Israel. Ad infinitum

Your natural question would be what happens to the relationship when the Jews didn't have control?

Prayer and observances still focused on Israel.

Think of this- possibly weak-analagy. Suppose a parent loses custody of a child to a kidnapping. The child is always in the thoughts and the love is always there. If somehow the child is restored to the parent, the child would be defended by the parent to the last drop of the parent's blood.

That's the Jewish people's (except for a few crazies)relationship with that tiny sliver of land.

Jesus, being a Jew, must have felt the same about the relationship of the Jewish people to Israel and Jerusalem. It follows that Christians should understand.

[JoeBloggs]

Speaking as an Irishman who has lived in Ireland, the UK, Belgium and Germany. I don't feel that all Europeans are inherently anti-semetic but IMHO many of the major Newspapers and TV stations are inclined to be more sympathetic towards the Palestians than Jews.

And the people that work in the media (usually middle class of left/liberal persuasion)generally have an idealised "picture-postcard" view of Muslims & Muslim culture in general because they don't live amongst them. Ordinary "working class" people who do, generally have a more realistic view.

As for anti-semitism, I live close to area with a large Jewish population in the UK and I can't say I'm aware of any problems. The odd isolated incident maybe.

[verboten]

Every synagogue on Earth, in all of history, faces Jerusalem. The covenant involves Jews doing certain things and God doing certain things includes Israel as the homeland of the Jews. Some Jewish holidays are celebrated differently- longer- outside of Israel. Ad infinitum

Odd then that our government, which proclaims loudly how sectarian they are would support a State whose sole existance is for the furtherment of a specific religion limited to people by birth. Scratch that, it isn't odd, it is downright ludicrous.

[Lent]

He wrote about Palestine about 450 BC.

Ever hear of Josephus? Don't pull you did you ever read this or that crap? That's your usual goofy methodology.