EU’s Folly: Sanitizing Hamas

In an act of sheer buffoonery, reminiscent of the old English ballad, “The World Turned Upside Down,” the Luxembourg-based European Union General Court moved to cleanse Hamas of very bloody hands by opining that the Gaza-based thugocracy should no longer be classified as a terrorist organization. The august body of European jurists determined that Hamas just has a bad reputation because of bad PR. Specifically, the court found that the terrorist rap was simply “determined by news and Internet reports rather than by acts examined and confirmed in decisions of competent authorities.” We presume the Hamas kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers last summer and countless other grotesqueries would also be considered acts determined by news and Internet reports. The world has, indeed turned upside down. You really can’t make this sort of stuff up.

Not to be up-staged by the court, the European Parliament decided, almost immediately thereafter, by a vote of 498 to 88 (with 111 abstentions) to support “in principle the recognition of Palestinian statehood” in tandem with revived peace negotiations. The EU Parliament also expressed “its strong support for the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states, with the secure State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security on the basis of the right of self-determination and full respect of international law.”

Well, who knew that after sixty-six years of rejection Israel and its Palestinian antagonists could finally live side-by-side in peace and security on the basis of self-determination and full respect of international law if only the nations of the world voted that it be so? Israel, of course, tried that once when it accepted exactly just such a plan in 1948, which its Arab neighbors rejected and, instead, invaded and started a war that cost the infant state about 1% of its entire population at the time (6,373 Israelis killed).

But let’s get back to the EU court’s procedural ruling (it is, theoretically, subject to appeal by EU members) that Hamas, essentially, may just have a PR problem. Let’s go to Hamas’s raison d’être – its charter.

The reader will recall that Hamas controls about 40% of the Palestinian population, and the worst kept secret in the region is that, given an opportunity, Hamas would rout Fatah (the Palestinian Authority) out of a political presence on the West Bank just as they violently purged Fatah from Gaza following the elections in Gaza in January of 2006. So just what does the Hamas Charter say about two states living side by side in peace and security. Let’s take a look.

Article Six: Peculiarity and Independence – 
”The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinct Palestinian Movement which owes its loyalty to Allah, derives from Islam its way of life and strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine…”

Article Eleven: “The Strategy of Hamas – “The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf (a religious endowment) throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it. No Arab country nor the aggregate of all Arab countries, and no Arab King or President nor all of them in the aggregate, have that right, nor has that right any organization or the aggregate of all organizations, be they Palestinian or Arab, because Palestine is an Islamic Waqf throughout all generations and to the Day of Resurrection.”

The EU Parliament has endorsed the two-state solution (as has Israel) and urges the commencement of peace negotiations (which the Palestinians walked away from a year ago). So what are the prospects for fruitful peace negotiations? Again, let’s take a look at the Hamas charter.

Article Thirteen: Peaceful Solutions, – “[Peace] Initiatives and International Conferences
[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad…Peace initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement… There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. The initiatives, proposals and International Conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility…”

So just who is responsible for the bloodshed and violence that is endemic to so much of the Middle East today? Perhaps, the Hamas Charter can throw some light on this question. Let’s take a look.

Article Twenty-Two: The Powers which Support the Enemy – ”…They (the Jews) also used the money to establish clandestine organizations which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests. Such organizations are: the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, B’nai B’rith and the like. All of them are destructive spying organizations… They obtained the Balfour Declaration and established the League of Nations in order to rule the world by means of that organization. They also stood behind World War II…They inspired the establishment of the United Nations and the Security Council to replace the League of Nations, in order to rule the world by their intermediary. There was no war that broke out anywhere without their fingerprints on it.”

Well, we thought the likes of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Al Shabaab, Islamic Jihad Boko Haram, and all those other “militant” groups (the western press doesn’t call them terrorists anymore) were responsible for all the bloodshed. But no, according to the Hamas Charter it’s the Rotary Clubs, Lions clubs, B’nai B’rith and the Freemasons and other Zionist organizations that are the troublemakers.

But isn’t giving peace a chance a goal worth pursuing? Well, what does the Hamas wing of the Palestinian government have to say?

Article Thirty-Two: The Attempts to Isolate the Palestinian People –  “… (ever) leaving the circle of conflict with Israel is a major act of treason and it will bring curse on its perpetrators.”

So while Israel awaits Hamas’s next promised assault from the South, Hezbollah looms in waiting to the North. The reader will recall, once again, that at the conclusion of the 2006 warfare between Israel and Hezbollah (also the result of the murder and kidnapping of Israelis), the UN Security Council issued Resolution 1701 that required South Lebanon to be free of armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon. Yet, today, the consensus of military analysts in the West and in Israel is that Hezbollah has, since the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, replenished it’s largely depleted arsenal of about 10,000 rockets with an arsenal today of an estimated 80,000 rockets – all aimed at civilian communities throughout Israel.

The EU General Court and Parliament and one European country after another respond by sanitizing Hamas and passing resolutions endorsing the establishment of a Palestinian State with or without a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. American and European Universities and European communities imprudently sign on to the idiotic BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) movement to further isolate Israel.

The Western world, it seems, is tired of the conflict and, having no ability to influence the chaotic Arab world is largely focusing its displeasure on Israel. The world is, indeed, turning upside down.