The Wall Street Journal had a very solid editorial last week on the EU’s new chief foreign-policy swami, Brit Labour politico Catherine Ashton. Pourquoi?
Perhaps to shed her much-deserved reputation as a foreign-policy novice, she used her maiden speech in the European Parliament to fuel the Continent’s No. 1 international-affairs obsession: trashing the Jewish state.
“We’re deeply concerned about daily living conditions of people in Gaza,” she told law makers last week. “Israel should reopen the crossings without delay.”
Play to the cheap seats Madame Secretary. Well, my Euro-expert-paisan Roberto will have none of it and e-mails, calling the Baroness out, and asking her to clam up:
The Wall is, in the main, along the demarcation line of 49′ and has benefited both the Palestinians and the Israelis in stemming the Hamas instigated rocket and suicide attacks launched in the name of the last intifada.
It is well documented that the majority of attacks, coming not from flat bed trucks along the line, are purposely launched from and within resident quarters, hospitals, schools and the like. By deterring these attacks Israel has reduced the risk to the civilian population and allowed Israel to continue to pour unprecedented aid into all of Palestine.
By pushing the old “canard” of the Israeli suppression of the Gaza people, the reverse is more the truth. The area has a growing economy. More normalized daily lives and the insecurity and anxiety that comes from your children under daily assault has wavered.
The good Baroness would do herself a big favor by closing her mouth, opening her eyes and taking a hard look at the facts on the ground and her own conduct.
Let the Star of Bethlehem cast its shadow and enlighten her from that myopic and destructive chant of the “do-gooder” which only serves to create a division and further conflict. But then that is what Marx intended in the very first instance.