The European Jewish Association is proud and delighted to welcome another organisation to our growing roster of partners and communities.
We have just concluded and signed a memorandum of understanding with The Jewish Community of Jurmala (Jewrmala), Latvia.
We are sure that this cooperation will bring with it beautiful and important accomplishments. We look forward to working for the betterment of Latvia and European Jewry together.
There is a thin line between aspiration and delusion.
All of us seek to encourage aspiration, but we also regard it as a duty to tell others that they are being deluded. And yet nobody in the international community is willing to have this conversation with the Palestinian Leadership. What is this delusion? It is the “all or nothing” Palestinian demands for peace.
Israelis want peace. But there is zero chance of successful negotiations with a bar set too high for Israel to accept. The bar is a return to pre- 67 borders and the ‘right of return’.
It is time to be blunt. Nobody knows better than Israel what its security needs are. Israel has made it clear that 67 borders are not defendable and would pose an existential threat to the country and its citizens. In short, it’s not going to happen.
Israel may be a young state but it has a long memory. Those who ask it to compromise its borders and security are many of the same voices who left her on her own during wars when her needs were greatest. It will not compromise security for promises and words.
On the ‘right to return’ the bluntness must continue. The Palestinians are not only demanding a smaller Israeli State, and a Palestinian state free of Jews, but for the absorption of millions of Palestinians into Israel.
In short, Israel would simply cease to be a Jewish State – the world’s only one. It’s not going to happen.
Let’s keep it even more simple: A future Palestinian State can have the luxury of malleable borders, Israel cannot.
This is the reality. The Palestinians demands are not credible or achievable. And yet the international community continues to pay lip-service to their delusion.
This is a dereliction of duty. We need to rip up the current playbook that the international community is sticking to. It is a playbook that has not advanced the prospects of peace by a single millimetre. It enables Palestinian stasis. It removes any motivation for them to move forwards. It keeps them in their comfort zone of perpetual grievance.
The Trump plan on the other hand represents the first real attempt by any negotiators to understand and put Israeli security as the starting position and build from there. Previous attempts have always made this an afterthought.
The plan also offers Palestinians a real pathway to statehood, underpinned with a 50 billion investment in infrastructure and state-building – around a third, in today’s money – of the entire Marshall plan budget that was given to 16 countries.
The Palestinians rejected it.
Why? The official line is because of annexation, and because they lost trust in Trump.
Let’s take annexation first. In the past, and most recently in Gaza, but also including the return of Sinai and other territory, Israel has shown its willingness to trade land for Peace as long as it can safeguard its security. And there is no reason to believe that this would not be the case again. Annexation does not represent a final settling of borders. It can represent an opportunity for Palestinians to get back round the table, even if they are historically averse to doing so.
Which brings us to the issue of trust. The Peace process to date is a litany of failure to budge on the Palestinian side, even after significant and often painful moves by Israel, such as the withdrawal from territories that we just touched upon.
Their reaction to this plan is more of the same. The refusal to Trump is the same refusal given to Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Obama. The same refusal of 48, 67, 73, in the 80’s, 90’s, and OO’s. The terms of reference only change.
Which takes us back to where we started. Aspiration and delusion. A Palestinian state in an aspiration. 67 lines and the right to return is delusion. Annexation is not a final settling of borders, but can be part of negotiations.
It is time to get serious. To get real. To disavow delusion and face reality.
If we fail to do this, we will never get the Palestinians back around the negotiating table, allowing them to perpetuate ad-infinitum the suffering of the people that they represent.
And It’s time for the international community to finally choose between the two and get things moving again.
The article was published in The Times of Israel
Chief of European Jewish Association says Major EU Conference on Shechitah is “Too Little but not Too Late.”
The European Jewish Association were participants at a major gathering in Brussels of Jewish leaders, civil society leaders, jurists, politicians and special envoys at European Commission Headquarters today. 2022
Chairman of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, said in a statement:
“The Conference held today by the European Commission is too little but not too late.
“We are proud to be the Jewish voice of Europe and to fight on issues that some regard as unpopular.
“We thank the Commission for agreeing to our repeated pleas and finally addressing the issue of Freedom of Religion in Europe, in this case on Religious Slaughter. It is a much-needed step in the right direction.
“However, today’s conference must not give anyone the feeling that the issue can be marked with a tick or glossed over with well-meaning words.
“We expect, going forwards, that the European Commission will make every effort to secure the support of all European governments for legislation that would enshrine the issue of religious freedom in law to ensure the continued existence of Jewish life in Europe.
“Make no mistake, the issue of the Freedom of Religion, whilst not grabbing the headlines that antisemitism does, is every bit as important. Because without this freedom to practice, and to live a Jewish life, there can be no Jewish future in Europe.
“We stand today at a crossroads, whilst conferences like this are too little, they are a reminder that it is not too late to go in the right direction.”
In an interview with Radio France International (RFI) and France 24 television channel, Séjourné siad: “There must be levers of influence and there are multiple levers, going up to sanctions, to let humanitarian aid cross checkpoints.’’
“France was one of the first countries to propose European Union sanctions on Israeli settlers who are committing acts of violence in the West Bank. We will continue if needed to obtain the opening of humanitarian aid,” he added.
‘’I’m ashamed today of the remarks made by the head of French diplomacy,’’ Manuel Valls, who was Prime Minister from 2014 to 2016, told CNEWS channel.
‘’ I always speak in moderation. I’ve exercised power and I know it’s difficult, but to put Hamas and Israel on the same footing. If Hamas returned the hostages, laid down its arms and its leaders surrendered or left, the war would end. Hamas is responsible for this war, for the attack on Israelis last October 7, and for using Palestinians as human shields, he added.
‘’As for sanctions, is Israel a friendly country or not? We’re a long way from the statements made by President Macron, who was very fair the day after October 7. It’s unbearable. It’s an act of great cowardice, and we have to be careful. Because in Israel there is a debate but it is united on one objective: both to save the hostages and to put an end to the threat to Israel from the south. Threatening sanctions against a country that is on the front line against Islamism, which is also waging war against us, is highly irresponsible,’’ concluded Manuel Valls.
Despite the French Foreign Minister’sb statements, a record number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip on Monday, according to Israel. A total of 419 trucks were inspected before entering the Palestinian territory. This is the highest number of trucks to enter Gaza in a single day since the war began on October 7. The previous record was 322 trucks, which entered the Palestinian territory on Sunday, according to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), in a comment posted on X. Before the war, nearly 500 trucks entered Gaza every day, according to a humanitarian source.
In February, France banned 28 Israelis from entering the European country, accusing them of attacking Arabs in Judea and Samaria.
“Settlement activity is illegal under international law and must stop. Its continuation is incompatible with the creation of a viable Palestinian State,” according to a statement from Paris at the time.
Last month, French President Emanuel Macron said that the forcible transfer of Gazans from Rafah ahead of a prospective Israeli military operation in the city would constitute a “war crime,” according to Agence France-Presse.
In November, Macron claimed during a BBC interview that Israel was killing women and children in Gaza.
“De facto—today civilians are being bombed. These babies, these women, these old people are being bombed and killed. So there is no reason for it and no legitimacy. So we do plead with Israel to stop,” the French leader said.
The remarks drew condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that Macron “made a serious mistake, factually and morally” and that “the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas-ISIS and not with Israel.”
אירוע אנטישמי בקרואטיה: תלמידים מבית ספר יהודי בצרפת שיצאו למחנה קיץ במלון בעיירה טרילז’ שבקרואטיה, הלכו לישון ביום שני בלילה ונדהמו לגלות כשקמו למחרת בבוקר צלב קרס ענק בצבע אדום שרוסס על כיכר גדולה שנשקפת מחלונות חדריהם.
איגוד הקהילות היהודיות באירופה העביר את המידע לשגרירות ישראל וכן לממשל הקרואטי שפתח בחקירות האירוע.
גורם רשמי קרואטי אף הגיע להתנצל בפני הילדים ותוגברה משמעותית האבטחה על הילדים שחלקם חש בחרדה רבה בעקבות המקרה.
יו”ר איגוד הארגונים היהודים באירופה, הרב מנחם מרגולין, הגיב לאירוע ואמר: “הילדים התעוררו וראו צלב קרס אדום ענק, סמל הכאב והרצח ליהודים בכל מקום, שאומר בבירור – אתם לא רצויים כאן. זה הצלב הבוער, הלולאה סביב העץ ליהודים. החופשה הזאת עבור הילדים האלה תהיה עכשיו חופשה בלתי נשכחת, מהסיבות הלא נכונות. אף על פי שאני בטוח שדעותיהם של האחראים לציור צלב קרס ענקי אינן מייצגות את הרוב המכריע של הקרואטים, תקיפה זו מסמלת עדיין כאב עמוק ליהודים בכל מקום”.
“המלחמה באנטישמיות באירופה עדיין בעיצומה. ההתקפה הזו היא תזכורת לכך שלעולם לא נוכל להרשות לעצמנו להיות שאננים ולאפשר לנגיף האנטישמיות להתפשט ללא בקרה”, הוסיף.
It’s a challenging time for Jewish communities in Europe. Anti-Semitism is on the rise as populism and the politics of the lowest common denominator are gaining traction. Our communities often need round the clock protection and our practices and customs such as keeping Kosher are under pressure from increasing political interference.
