Delegitimizing Israel

In a move that is highly indicative of the demonizing, knee-jerk reactions that are used to delegitimize Israel, the British and French Governments criticized Israel for approving more building projects in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The British Ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, who incidentally is Jewish, held a press conference to castigate Israel over these moves, and the Elysee Palace issued a sharp criticism. But, it so happens these reports were totally false. They had been released by an Israeli NGO, Ir Yamim, that exists only to criticize Israel and that is supported by money from these EU governments. It so happened that the Israeli Government did not approve any permits to build in the West Bank or Jerusalem, it was a totally made up report. Yet, Britain and France never bothered to check the facts with the Israeli Government, they merely accepted the report of their own anti-Israel NGO.

Of course, both countries criticized Israel for approving these building permits just when talks are taking place between Israel and the PA in Amman, Jordan. So Ir Yamim clearly timed this report to deliberatly have Israel criticized publicly now. This kind of thing has happened many times, so why bother to check the facts. Also, the process of approving building permits is a long slow bureaucratic one, often taking up to ten years, that is mainly a local authority matter and is beyond the control of the Government, as it is in most countries. This incident shows clearly that the British and French foreign policy establishments are primed to criticize Israel independently of the facts, in order to earn points with the Arabs, whether they are anti-western or not.

In a separate report in the Jerusalem Post it is stated that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Al Kuds (Jerusalem) Brigade is expanding its role in Europe and around the world. This is especially troubling because these are military-trained Iranian terrorists who are sent out to carry out Iran's wishes. This group was responsible for the blowing up of the Jewish facilties in Argentina and many other nefarious activities. It is speculated that as Iran nears the attainment of a nuclear weapon and a preemptive strike against Iran becomes more likely, especially after they showed that they intend to close the straits of Hormuz to oil supplies, then they will have Iranian terrorists in place in the West to carry out sabotage. These acts will be timed to coincide with Iran's program of expansion in the Middle East against Israel and the Sunni Arab states. I wish that the EU countries would pay more attention to this real threat than to the illusory issuance of permits on the West Bank to build phantom structures.

By the way, both Britain and France issued lame apologies.