Israel Matzav

Israel accepts dhimmi status; US and EU to follow

I've mentioned several times that Israelis entered the hall at Annapolis through a 'service entrance' to avoid offending 'Arab sensibilities.' But that wasn't the only example of dhimmitude at Annapolis. And US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice wasn't the only one at her party willing to treat Israelis as dhimmis. According to Rabbi Aryeh Spero, she had plenty of helpers, starting from the American mainstream media and concluding with the Israeli government representatives, who are apparently willing to accept their own second class status as dhimmis.

Further snubbing took place at Condi’s conclave, according to David Warren of the Ottowa Citizen. Aside from turning off their ear pieces when the Israeli delegate spoke, the Saudis refused to shake hands with the Israelis, forcing Minister Livni to query, “Why won’t anyone shake my hand? Why won’t anyone let themselves be seen speaking to me?" Indeed, the Saudi intention of publicly snubbing and humiliating the Israeli delegation in a conference sponsored by Ms. Rice was known prior to the conference. Yet, she set no ground rules for propriety and American-style fair play. She has become like so many governing elites in the West who are so sensitive to Arab demands against their own humiliation but absolutely indifferent when Moslems humiliate those of us in the West.

By now, we are used to pitiful European capitulation to an Islamization wholly inconsistent with the essential features of Western civilization, be it the refusal by many in the Press to publish anything local imams find offensive or a national legislature expelling an elected official because of her critical remarks over Islamic honor killings and other brutal mistreatments of women within the Koranic community. This is a function of Europe’s fear and its timidity regarding its own cultural legitimacy.

What was starkly surprising last week was the Press’s refusal, here, to stand by its Israeli journalist brothers who were refused entry into a press conference at the Saudi consulate. Even one of Newsweek's reporters, an Israeli working out of Israel, was kept out of the Judea-rein briefing held only miles away from Constitution Ave. There was no solidarity shown, no standing up for that which should bind all legitimate journalists: freedom and access of the press. Evidently the odor of Islamization sourced in the State Department wafted over the Potomac down to Chesapeake Bay, and back.

Why the Olmert government didn’t muster enough pride in refusing to accept dhihmi status is irksome but understandable when remembering that it lacks sufficient pride to pronounce an emphatic “No” to those demanding that it relinquish to its enemies its very capital, Old Jerusalem, the repository of its spiritual and historic being. Worse, it has itself begun to believe the propaganda that the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state “is in Israel’s best interest.”

Up until now it was the Israelis who held the cards inasmuch as allowing for another Moslem state bent on its destruction and contiguous to it was not something Israel desired, not an end nor reason for which to compromise. Now that Olmert and company are peddling the Condi Rice tonic that it is in Israel’s self-interest to have, even create, a Palestinian Arab state, Israel will make irresponsible concessions and even accept dhimi status if that is what it takes to secure that great panacea known as a Palestinian state. It is a panacea, we are told, for by handing over one’s land to Islamists demanding it, a country is freeing itself from the demographic and intifada threats associated with that territory.

If the West accepts the notion that every time Islamists make claim to earth where they have begun living that it is in that country’s interest to forfeit portions of its own land so as to spare itself demographic and intifada troubles, then watch out Kashmir, India, Chechnaya, the Phillipines, Kosovo, Belgium and neighborhoods in Manchester and London. Accepting that notion is a victory for the world wide, incremental putsch of Islamism.

It looks like Kosovo is already lost.

Yet the celebratory mood was tinged with uncertainty. Some wondered whether the seemingly imminent birth of a nation will re-ignite ancient ethnic hatreds and thrust the Balkans into a new cycle of bloodshed.

NATO, which maintains 16,000 peacekeepers in Kosovo, has boosted street patrols in a show of force aimed at discouraging extremists on both sides of the ethnic divide.

"I don't believe it's possible for Serbs and Albanians to live together peacefully," said Mimoza Sejdiu, 24, an ethnic Albanian at Monday's rally. "I don't see a common future as citizens of one country."

In a sign of underlying tensions, Kosovo police said that over the weekend, unknown assailants tossed a bottle of flaming liquid into a vacant house owned by Serbs in the town of Gnjilane southeast of Pristina and sprayed this menacing message: "Death to Serbs."

Former KLA rebels are believed to have stashed away huge caches of rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons in Kosovo's forests and in their own backyards. More than 500,000 handguns alone remain in circulation, according to UN estimates.

Serbia, which has offered Kosovo broad autonomy but insists the province remain part of its territory, has threatened economic blockades, and some officials have even hinted that Belgrade might resort to force to retain what many Serbs see as the cradle of their civilization.

In a provocative move seen as a fresh territorial claim, Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, opened a branch office in the ethnically divided northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica - long a flashpoint for violence.

Russia, Serbia's No. 1 ally, has threatened to veto any move by the UN Security Council to sign off on statehood. Moscow contends independence for Kosovo would encourage separatists in Chechnya, Georgia and elsewhere to break away.

"This will trigger a chain reaction in the Balkans and in other areas of the world," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Monday during a visit to Cyprus, itself a divided nation.

But Washington signaled anew that it was ready to recognize an independent Kosovo, raising the likelihood of a showdown when the Security Council takes up the issue on December 19.

"Over the next few weeks, the United States will work closely with our international partners to resolve this issue. The people of Kosovo and the region urgently need clarity about their future," US State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos in a statement.

In the past four months of talks, negotiators from the US, EU and Russia explored "every realistic option for an agreement and, in their words, 'left no stone unturned' in the search for a mutually-acceptable outcome," Gallegos said.

Although Kosovo's leaders have vowed not to declare independence without US and European Union approval, government spokesman Skender Hyseni said a declaration was "not an issue of if, but when."

I wonder if anyone in the US government still remembers the Domino Theory. Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:25 AM