Blinkered Barack
Another month, another horrific and deadly Islamist assault against Jews, this time in a synagogue in Copenhagen, while a bat mitzvah was going on. Imagine if the gunman had managed to enter the celebration. And yet there are some who unbelievably rip Benjamin Netanyahu for saying that European Jews should come home. European leaders keep promising to protect their Jewish citizens. But in reality, they have not done enough, and too often have been complicit in the demonisation of Israel, and by extension, Jews. Take Denmark. Repeatedly, it has threatened Israel with economic sanctions because of its “illegal settlements” and for “blocking” the peace process. Like many European states, it has funded NGOs that are driving the BDS campaign. And last December, the EU Parliament refused to establish a special task force on anti-Semitism, to top off the EU Court’s delisting of Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
Ask yourselves: Where were the massive street marches in European capitals, like the one after Charlie Hebdo, protesting the explosion of anti-Semitism, when week after week Jews were assaulted and threatened? Anti-Semitism has become the norm, big time, skyrocketing and sweeping through continents like an infection. Since the end of the World War II, we have not seen such a terrifying display of Jewish hatred.
It seems that with every atrocity, homegrown terrorists are becoming more emboldened. Jews are at risk worldwide. They are fair game and targets of an unrelenting wave of a global, jihadist-inspired terrorism, whether it is in Paris or Jerusalem. Just watch the video issued a few days ago by Somali terror group al-Shabaab, threatening violence against Jewish-owned shopping centres.
Pastor Niemöller had it right. While it starts with the Jews, it won’t end with the Jews. As we know, those who come for the Jews will come for others, including nation states, the police, the military and any organisation that promotes and practises freedom of expression. With each passing day, it’s clear that this is a wartime situation.
And yet, the Obama administration is intent on doubling down on its dangerous policy of on-the-ground appeasement and linguistic denial. While ISIS and violent jihadists are wantonly slaughtering Jews, Christians and Muslims, enslaving women and children, and trafficking in human organs, the US government is living in a parallel universe. Declaring that they can’t beat ISIS because it can’t kill enough of them to win, it seriously believes that it can placate the genocidal maniacs by finding them jobs, and “investing” in their economies.
That’s right, according to State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, the root cause of the monstrosities we are witnessing is a “lack of opportunity for jobs”. This argument was repeated last week during the Summit on Violent Extremism in the White House. We can all sleep well tonight, because if you buy the jobs programs for jihadists solution, once those murderers have jobs, and are no longer poor, they will no longer have the desire to kill people and will embrace Western-liberal values.
Never mind that a flood of young men and women, from middle and wealthy middle-class backgrounds are leaving their countries, including Australia, to join ISIS. Poverty is not the recruiting tool or the motivator for the so called “lone wolves”.
What is driving these acts is a radicalised theological message that these young people are hearing from local religious leaders and on the internet. ISIS has produced an appealing and powerful story about establishing a caliphate and about holy war between their fanatical ideology and the West that is resonating with a huge number of people. With each passing day, it’s clear that this is a wartime situation.
When ISIS slaughtered 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, Obama referred to the victims as “Egyptian citizens”. When Jews were murdered in the kosher supermarket in Paris they were “a bunch of folks”, random victims in the wrong “deli” at the wrong time. Coulibaly, who pledged allegiance to ISIS, didn’t just stumble into the kosher shop.
He told journalists, “I targeted them because they were Jewish.”
Playing a dangerous, politically correct word game, Obama refuses to call those who behead and burn people alive radical Islamist terrorists.
Reflect: How many tens of millions of lives would have been spared if the world had listened to Churchill’s opposition to appeasement in the 1930s?
Obama should take his cue from David Cameron, who, back in 2011 stated, “We need to be absolutely clear on where the origins of these terrorists attacks lie. That is the existence of an ideology, Islamist extremism.”
And this week, in his national security address, PM Tony Abbott talked about the “Islamist death cult” and put in place a set of strong measures to fight this pandemic.
Burying his head in the sand, the US President is making us all more vulnerable with his wilful and passive inaction, or as he likes to call it “strategic patience”.
And I didn’t even mention his failed accommodation on Iran, or his incredible undermining and hammering of Netanyahu for accepting an invitation to address Congress.
This article was originally published in the Australian Jewish News, February 27, 2015