By Steve Kramer
KFAR SABA, Israel — The West abhors terror attacks for good reason, whether in their country or an ally. Except when it comes to Israel. Not having learned the lesson that Islamist terror doesn’t abide by any type of agreement, the U.S. and the West still think that they can buy off terrorists. They can’t, as experience has proven. But when it comes to Israel, not a problem. In fact, these countries fund it, knowing and unknowingly! And those who don’t, spend other people’s money to have the United Nations and other Israel haters do it for them. In fact, the U.S. pays more than 20% of the U.N. budget, an organization that has chosen Israel as the worst country in the world, or at least the worst that it pays attention to.
In 2021, the U.N. General Assembly passed 14 resolutions against Israel. The number of resolutions passed against all the other member states totaled five. In addition, the General Assembly recently passed an unlimited and open-ended probe of alleged war crimes against Israel, by a vote of 125 for, eight against, and 34 abstentions. It’s open season on Israel, all the time.
A story about “Israel’s apartheid and persecution against millions of Palestinians,” topped the list of Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) most-read reports of 2021, the NGO has reported. HRW’s report on Israel’s conduct ranked higher (in readership) than reports on topics including sexual violence against women in India, extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, restrictions on women’s rights in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, digital sex crimes in South Korea and others.
“In FY 2019-2020, total income was $75.9 million; total expenses were $89 million, of which $5.9 million was spent on the Middle East and North Africa [Israel!] Among HRW’s biggest supporters are the Ford Foundation and the Dutch government via Oxfam NoviB, the Dutch affiliate of Oxfam international, an international confederation of 17 organizations networked together in 92 countries. Within the Oxfam umbrella, Oxfam Novib plays a leading role on the Arab-Israeli conflict, including demonization and other anti-Israel campaigns.” Many nations give similar support to anti-Israel NGOs.
Kenneth Roth, the executive director of HRW, characterizes Israel as an apartheid regime whose human right acts are more significant than the abuses committed by the Iranian or Syrian governments against their own people, by China against the Uyghurs, or by the Taliban against those unfortunate Afghans who now find themselves under its rule.
“Respected” organizations like HRW continually single out Israel as a human rights malefactor. The Palestinian Authority (PA) reaps the benefits. Even the U.S., which effectively cut off payments during the last administration, has partially resumed funding the PA. This is in direct opposition to the 2018 Taylor Force Act, which prohibits for five years certain economic assistance that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority. Payments are allowed if the Department of State certifies that the PA, ends acts of violence against U.S. and Israeli citizens, ends compensation for imprisoned terrorists, or publicly celebrates such acts of violence. By any definition, none of these terms have been met, yet the money tap has been reopened. Even worse, Israel’s government is “loaning” the PA 100 million shekels to prop it up.
How are individuals and nations so naive as to believe that the PA, let alone Hamas which rules Gaza, can ever create a “state” that any democracy could approve as a neighbor? The Middle East neighborhood tells the tale: On Israel’s northern border, Lebanon, which once was described as the “playground” of the Middle East, is brutally ruled by Hezbollah, a proxy army of Iran. On Israel’s northeastern border is Syria, brutally ruled by the dictator Bashar al-Assad, who has eclipsed his brutal father, Hafez al-Assad. South of Syria is Jordan, which at least has a peace treaty with Israel, albeit a cold one. A warmer neighbor to Israel’s south is Egypt, whose President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is much more open to cooperation with Israel in multiple areas.
So, two brutal, despotic neighbors border Israel. But Jordan abuts Iran to the east, Israel’s most implacable enemy and the puppet master of Hezbollah. Iran is the most dangerous country for Israel and the West. Why? Because it is intent on being a regional power with nuclear weapons. What’s worse, it proudly proclaims it will destroy Israel if (meaning when) it achieves its goal of having nuclear weapons. No other country broadcasts such a dangerous message, except for perhaps North Korea, which is rightly treated as a pariah nation.
But Iran isn’t treated similarly. Instead, it’s courted by other nations as a trading partner and perhaps even an ally. Its vitriol towards Israel doesn’t impede those nations from making diplomatic overtures to Iran and cutting it all kinds of slack when it comes to its bomb making efforts. Israel can’t afford to slough off Iran’s deadly predictions and continually weighs its options against Iran, be they preparatory measures or a preventative attack. Unfortunately, Israel can rely on no other country, not even its greatest friend and ally, America.
Samantha Power, no friend of Israel, currently serves as the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is the former Ambassador to the U.N. under President Obama. Power says, “Investments in the health and wellbeing of Palestinians benefits everyone, including Israelis. Yet today, it has become controversial to provide life-saving aid to the Palestinian people and invest in their development.”
Why are these payments controversial? Guns or butter: Journalist Daniel Greenfield writes that U.S. funds the PA, which is undeniably a terror-sponsoring welfare state in the West Bank and Gaza. These funds are used to purchase butter (welfare) allowing Hamas and the PLO (synonymous with the PA) to focus on buying guns and materiel for terrorists. Blatantly, the PLO’s Palestinian Authority paid out some $150 million in 2019 and $180 million in 2020 to imprisoned terrorists and the families of dead terrorists as part of its “Pay-to-Slay Jews” program.
Israel fights on its own and doesn’t make the mistake of expecting any other nation to fight its battles. It never has. But as a democratic state with perhaps the most humane military on the planet, it does deserve backing from its Western allies in the common Western fight against Jihadism.
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Steve Kramer is a freelance writer based in Kfar Saba, Israel. He may be contacted via steve.kramer@sdjewishworld.com