Friday, November 13, 2015
Elder of Ziyon
Which means that they will soon be targeted (if they haven't been already) as a group that seeks to have Jews take over Europe.
Excerpts from JNS:
The European Leadership Network (ELNET)—a non-governmental, non-partisan organization founded by European, Israeli, and American leaders in 2007—works to improve strategic relations between Israel and European Union countries. With current activity and presence primarily in Germany, France, Spain, and Poland, as well as an office opening near the seat of the EU and NATO in Brussels in the near future, ELNET has hosted more than 50 European delegations of parliament members, top government officials, and other European policy leaders to Israel. ELNET has also held more than 20 strategic meetings in Europe, and has engaged more than 500 participants in its effort to enhance European-Israeli understanding and cooperation on a wide variety of fields.
JNS.org interviewed ELNET’s co-founder, Raanan Eliaz, and the U.S.-based national executive director of Friends of the European Leadership Network (FELNET), Lee Rosenblum. Below, they discuss the current state of Europe’s relationship with Israel and the significance of ELNET’s work.
Eliaz: ELNET creates for the first time in these countries a local power base of pro-Israel citizens who are capable and are well-equipped to communicate directly with elected officials, policy makers, and leaders of opinion. ELNET also hosts informal strategic discussions between top leaders from Israel and Europe that help create better policies towards each other.
[The migrant crisis and the growth of the Muslim population of Europe] affect what we do because we are interested in that European leaders, our primary audience, take this into account when they make policies. Most of the migrants do not care about Israel and simply want to become citizens of their new countries. There is a local minority in some countries, France for example, that is violent and extreme. When integration fails most dramatically is where these countries have the most tension, and one of the ways we see this is violence against Jews, but not only. Violence in France is not targeting Jews only or Jews primarily. It is targeting the values of the (French) Republic. We need to remember that.
Most of the people we are engaging are not Jewish. Israel is not an issue that belongs only to the Jews in these countries, but it’s a matter of values and democratic principles. There is also a positive impact of this issue because this crisis helps Europeans understand Israel better in some cases.
[In France] the challenge comes at the leadership level. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius [recently issued some] initiatives that are questionable (such as the French U.N. request to impose a deadline on the Israelis and Palestinians, and the initiative to have an international presence in the Temple Mount).
[Germany has] a very unique history and a unique commitment to Israel (due to the history of the Holocaust), and is one of the most helpful partners in some areas [with Israel], for example in security and defense exchange. Younger Germans who are already in ministerial positions look at the past differently. Our agenda in Germany is to talk and speak about the present and future, and bring to the surface those interests that connect Germany and Israel now and tomorrow.
[Upcoming elections in Spain could lead to a] dramatic shift in the country. And there is a constant challenge to keep Israel a neutral issue [in Spain]. We are making a constant effort to keep the socialist leadership in Spain educated about our issues. In fact, we just had a delegation of Spanish center-left leadership, they almost never come without us.
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