Yossie Dagan (Deputy Governor of Samaria), Shay Attias (CEO Shomron Liason Office/Shuva Israel executive director) and I met this past week with members of the Norwegian and Dutch Parliament. Our meeting at the Norwegian parliament went very smoothly. The meeting with several parliamentarians at the Dutch Parliament was quite tough. While the Dutch parliamentarians all expressed support for Israel, all except one referred to Judea and Samaria as “occupied land.” I pointed out that the only sovereign powers to administer the “west bank” in the last 500 years were the Ottoman Empire, British Mandate and Jordan (1948-1967-Jordan’s rights to Judea and Samaria rejected by the international community/UN). Response from the Dutch Parliamentarians was “we are all familiar with the historical arguments but let us refer to the future and not the past.” Later in the conversation, they referred to past UN resolutions. When it was to their convenience, they used past, present and future tenses to make a point. When we are defending our right to Judea and Samaria, they ask us to cut ourselves off from the past. The hypocrisy and naivety of these members of a European Parliament only reinforce my long standing opinion that Europe is obsessed with Israel while turning a blind eye to conflict resolution in most of the rest of the world. One of the Dutch Parliamentarians asked Deputy Governor Dagan: “what are you willing to do for Peace.” Mr. Dagan answered, “I am not willing to create another situation where Missiles will fall on Tel Aviv for the sake of ‘peace.’” This particular Parliamentarian, member of the socialist party, responded “I would do it.” I had to restrain myself from standing up, walking over and slapping him in the face. In light of our (Israel’s) experience, I challenge any other country’s willingness to make further meaningless concessions to enemies still bent on our destruction. I have recently come under some criticism from a few fellow Jews for my efforts to build relationships with pro-Israel Christians. I have spent the last 15 years of my life building bridges with what I have come to learn is by far the largest pro-Israel worldwide base of political and financial support for Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria and our eternal capital, Jerusalem. My experience in the Dutch Parliament has only further reinforced my belief in this essential relationship. I will continue to travel and further the relationship with Bible believing Christians. In so doing, I also further educate the sensitive aspects of this relationship from the Jewish perspective in light of the tragic historical behavior of the Church toward the Jewish people. I would also like to acknowledge the fact that it is now even clearer how exceptionally special is the relationship between the people and governments of the United States of America/Canada and Israel. If and when such a relationship were to develop with the people and governments of Europe, Israel’s geopolitical situation would be very different than it is today. I doubt that this will happen, but am very happy that “Shuva Israel” is joining together with the Samaria Regional Council in a tireless effort to bring about change a of opinion in Europe. Eliezer Braun….blessingisrael
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 22:13:41 +0000
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