Writing in Arutz Sheva, Ari Yashar tells us:
Hamas, in both its military and governmental branches, has been temporarily removed from the European Union's list of proscribed terrorist groups as the result of a technical legal blunder.
The EU's New Best Buddies
After Hamas filed an appeal against its terrorist list standing, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg published its decision on Wednesday, with Hamas being removed due to claims that the group's inclusion in the list was against EU procedures and without sufficient evidence.
The court said in a statement that Hamas's inclusion was based on "factual imputations derived from the press and the Internet" as opposed to sound legal judgments. But it stressed that Wednesday's decision to remove Hamas was based on technical grounds and does "not imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of Hamas as a terrorist group."They are trying to soft-pedal this move. The Europeans know damn well that Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls specifically for the genocide of the Jewish people directly in its founding document. So as they ease Hamas into social and political acceptability in the West they need to pretend like its not really happening.
They remove Hamas from the terror list, but because this will make some people - most notably Jews - rather uncomfortable they pretend that Hamas was only kind-of removed from the terror list, and even then only for technical reasons. Besides, they tell us, Hamas will probably end up back on the list sometime in the future, anyway... maybe. Also, they assure us that they have maintained the freezing of Hamas assets in European lending institutions, so really nothing has at all changed.
Except things have changed and here is why.
What we are witnessing, essentially, is the open introduction of Hamas into the social and political European mainstream. Such a move is fully in keeping with the rise of "Eurabia" as described in Bat Ye'or's Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis. That is, close economic and political ties between Europe and the Arab world is changing the nature of European society in ways highly detrimental to Jewish people throughout the world.
This is, in fact, nothing less than the wholesale betrayal of the Jewish people by the European governments. The EU insists upon a two-state solution while pressuring the party that has accepted two states for two peoples (Israel) and putting no pressure on the intransigent party (the Arabs). This has been Obama's and the EU's modus operandi for many years, now.
Israel agrees to two states. The Palestinian-Arabs say "no" and refuse to negotiate, thus irrationally causing the EU and the US to pressure Israel to accept what it has always accepted since the 1937 Peel Commission. It says something about how twisted and topsey-turvey EU and US foreign policy is viz-a-viz the conflict. They place all pressure on Israel, despite the fact that Israel agreed to two states long ago, and they place no pressure on the intransigent party.
It simply makes no sense from a geopolitical standpoint. Heck, it makes no sense from a perspective of normal human decency and basic rationality.
But, then, the very idea that the EU would remove Hamas from its terror list also makes no sense from a perspective of normal human decency and basic rationality.
Here is a tid-bit from the Hamas charter that is actually part of one of the hadiths:
The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.They have talking rocks and trees who yammer for the blood of the Jews and, yet, somehow, this is alright with our European allies?
My favorite parts, however, have to do with these bizarre paranoid fantasies and conspiracy theories concerning the Freemasonic Lodge and other such old-timey men's associations. Here is a bit from article 17 of the charter referring specifically to the Masons and the Rotary Club:
These organizations have ample resources that enable them to play their role in societies for the purpose of achieving the Zionist targets and to deepen the concepts that would serve the enemy. These organizations operate in the absence of Islam and its estrangement among its people. The Islamic peoples should perform their role in confronting the conspiracies of these saboteurs. The day Islam is in control of guiding the affairs of life, these organizations, hostile to humanity and Islam, will be obliterated.In any case, this is a very important moment because it is the moment, historically, wherein the European Union is openly welcoming Hamas into their network. They may see a good strategy in poo-pooing the move but we need to be vigilant concerning the meanings of such diplomatic gestures and we must not be afraid to get into their faces about this kind of thing.
The EU can befriend Hamas or it can befriend the Jews, but it certainly cannot befriend both.
Oh, and by the way, this is Hamas' opinion of the Jews:
With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests.Again with the Freemasons!
One of my dearest friends from college is 33 degree Master Mason of Irish descent and I am pretty sure that he is not running around sabotaging societies, nor doing anything for "Zionist interests." In fact, I am pretty sure that what they mainly do is business networking and community / charitable efforts.
But, who knows?
Maybe the EU is right to side with Hamas over the Jews. They may lose their Freemasonic constituency - to the extent that their is any such creature - but why should they care? I feel reasonably certain in asserting the idea that the Freemasonic Lodge, whatever its past glories, no longer plays much of a role in European politics.
But, then, neither do the Jews.
Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.