Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini give a press conference following their meeting at the European Commission in Brussels on March 27, 2017. (AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand)
Victor Rosenthal -The Invisible War
I’ve written before about the European Union’s intervention in Judea/Samaria, how our “friends” in Europe pour massive amounts of money into illegal Palestinian development in Area C – the part of the territory that is supposed to be under full Israeli control according to the Oslo Accords. Control of these areas is absolutely critical for the defense of the State of Israel, both against Palestinian terrorism and against invasion across our borders.
Area C had very few Arab residents, and contains virtually all of the Jewish communities outside the 1949 armistice lines. Although President Trump’s “Deal of the Century” encouraged Israel to extend Israeli law to much of this area, it did not happen – to a great extent because of the chaos brought about by successive elections, and PM Netanyahu’s preoccupation with his legal problems.
Palestinians and their supporters typically falsely accuse Israel of precisely the evil intentions that they themselves hold toward us, and this is no exception. One hears no end of talk of “creeping annexation,” in which Jewish settlements are said to be inexorably capturing “Palestinian land,” while Israel torpedoes attempts to reach a negotiated settlement to end “the occupation.” But the reality is precisely the opposite: the Palestinian Arabs are increasingly appropriating land and building illegal settlements in Area C.
Thanks to the ever-vigilant European-funded left-wing Israeli NGOs like B’Tselem and others, with the cooperation of Israel’s Supreme Court and other elements of the judicial system, there has been very little, if any, growth in the area occupied by Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria for decades. But Palestinian construction, agricultural development, and conversion of state land into what the courts will declare “private Palestinian land” is flourishing in Area C, paid for by money from Europe and Qatar.
The motivations of the EU, which has adopted the Palestinian cause as its own, are manifold. There is the influence of Europe’s growing Muslim population. There is the lingering effect of decades of Soviet anti-Israeli propaganda. There is the residual guilt over European colonialism (the European Left is wedded to the view that Israel is a colonial power), and of course over their cooperation with the Nazis. By equating Israel with the Nazis that they allowed (and sometimes helped) to murder the Jews of Europe, and then opposing us, they expiate their guilt.
But regardless of its causes, this is war, a war to conquer and occupy territory, and part of a long-time campaign to end Jewish sovereignty altogether. It is being fought with money and not guns, but ultimately it will come to that. It’s a war that doesn’t make headlines, and a war that’s invisible to most of our people and politicians. Our opponent is an axis that includes some of the richest nations in the world, who are allied with our bitterest enemies. And it appears that the new government of our formerly most important ally, the US, is sympathetic to their cause.
We do fight back, a little. From time to time, Israel demolishes illegal structures. But there is no plan to stop the EU from pumping in money for construction or to finance the numerous NGOs that are involved in every kind of anti-Israel subversion, lawfare, and propaganda. There is no consistent strategy to win the war. We are reacting (once in a while) to their attacks, but we are not interdicting their supply lines. We are not counterattacking by building our own infrastructure in Area C.
Now, thanks to an intrepid undercover operation (watch a Hebrew video here) by a volunteer organization called Ad Kan (loosely translated as “this far and no farther”), the joint plans of the Palestinian Authority and European Union have been obtained and exposed. These plans are extremely detailed and represent a blueprint for an Arab takeover of all of Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley. If this plan succeeds, it will return Israel to a state with what Abba Eban called “Auschwitz borders,” an indefensible enclave surrounded by hostile enemies, without the benefit of the natural geographic features that are so strategically important, and without strategic depth in her most populated region. The EU has promised the PA billions of Euros to complete the takeover.
Until now Israel’s actions to interrupt this program have been sporadic and ineffective. I expect that the advent of the Biden Administration, which has already indicated that it would like to see a sovereign Palestinian state “based on pre-1967 lines,” will make opposition to it more difficult. But the plans that Ad Kan has made available to the authorities make it clear that failing to stop the EU/PA project will have very serious, even existential, consequences.
Despite its consistent characterization in the media as a “right-wing, hardline” government, Benjamin Netanyahu’s successive administrations have done little to oppose the ongoing loss of what is arguably the most important part of our land, the biblical homeland of the Jewish people. We have just had an election, which will (one hopes) produce a new government. Various scenarios for the outcome of coalition negotiations exist, including failure and another election, a clumsy just-not-Bibi coalition that depends on Arab votes, or (I think this is the most likely) a right-wing government led yet again by Netanyahu.
Whatever happens, it’s important for the leadership to begin fighting the heretofore invisible war. It must cut off the flow of money from the EU, and get its representatives off of our soil. It must crack down on the support from Europe – as well as left-wing groups in the US and other foreign sources – to the Israeli NGOs that work hand in hand with our enemies to subvert the state from within. It must build strategically and massively in Area C to prevent a vacuum that will be filled by the PA with the help of the EU.
Most importantly, it must present, to Israelis and to the world, a clear and consistent policy toward Judea and Samaria. A key part of that policy should be to extend Israeli law to all of Area C, and to enforce it.
I know this path will lead to friction with the EU, with the Arabs, and with the Biden Administration. There’s no alternative. We may not be interested in the invisible war, but the invisible war is interested in us.
