The Left in Europe, thanks to the complacency or cowardice of the Right, has very much succeeded in erasing Europe’s Christian identity. The same revolution is occurring in Israel. The agenda of the Left—of men like Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin, and Judge Aharon Barak—is obvious: to transform Israel into “a state of its citizens” and thereby erase its Jewish identity.
To illustrate what may become of Israel, let us examine Bruce Bawer, While Europe Slept (2006). Bawer’s findings are similar to those occurring in England, as may be seen in Melanie Phillips, Londonistan (2006). (Both authors are indebted to Bat Ye’or’s groundbreaking work, Eurabia.)
Europeans, says Bawer, are becoming dhimmies in their own countries. For example: it is known that Christians under sharia law must pay jizya, the protection tax demanded of all infidels living in Muslim lands. Since this can hardly be done in Norway, one imam has ruled that Muslims have a right to steal from Norwegian infidels! “If a Muslim walks straight into a store and steals, it is thus a legitimate act” (p. 26).
Muslim religious leaders give their followers the right to abuse the infidel’s system as much as possible —to cheat and lie to the countries that harbor them. They are told to view the benefits they receive as jizya. For some Muslim immigrants, the sky’s the limit. “In Denmark, Muslims make up 5 percent of the population but receive 40 percent of welfare outlays. Statistics for other countries are comparable” (p. 30). (Much the same may be said of Israel.)
By the way, after the 2005 terrorist attacks on London, it emerged that the four Muslim suspects had raked in more than half a million pounds in welfare benefits from the British government.
Welfare benefits and the demographic problem are magnified by Europe’s permissive immigration laws. If you’re a citizen, your foreign spouse, children, and family members may enter the country and live with you. (This is precisely the policy Judge Barak would have Israel follow. Thus, despite the war being waged by the Palestinian Authority against Israel, Barak wants the Supreme Court to nullify the law preventing Palestinian Arabs from gaining Israeli citizenship by marrying Israeli-Arabs—even though 20 percent of those who have received Israeli citizenship in the family reunification plan have been involved in terrorist activity!)
In Europe, Muslim youth roam the streets in packs and commit crimes in daylight, in front of witnesses, without fear of being stopped or punished. European prisons are overwhelmingly Muslim. In France the figure is 70 percent.
The arrogance of Muslims is astonishing. In Britain, imams have pressed the government to officially designate certain areas of Bradford as being under Muslim, not British law. In Denmark, Muslim leaders have sought the same kind of control over parts of Copenhagen (whose population is now more that half Muslim). In Belgium, Muslims in one Brussels neighborhood view it as under Islamic jurisdiction in which Belgians are not welcome!
What fosters this arrogance is the multiculturalism that permeates Europe’s ruling elites: politicians and judges, academics and journalists. To criticize any Muslim for any reason whatsoever is “racist.” Norwegian newspapers “were expressly forbidden to mention a person’s ethnic or immigrant background in reports on criminal cases lest a bad image be projected” (p. 54). Never mind a September 2001 report that 65 percent of the rapes in Norway are committed by “non-Western immigrants” (a term essentially synonymous with “Muslims”).
One can hardly exaggerate the degree to which Scandinavians fear being accused of racism. Muslims are called Europe’s “colorful community.”
Europeans are being brainwashed. Diversity of opinion will hardly be found in the editorial pages. One critic remarks: “The social democrats’ power over the minds, authorities, universities and media starts a process of adaptation from all sides, including the opposition, so that individualists and innovators are shut out” (p. 46, emphasis added).
The masses are being fed a steady diet of leftwing “missionary journalism.” Europe’s media are more leftwing than The New York Times and The Washington Post. There is no FOX News or Wall Street Journal or Washington Times to provide an alternative view, say, of Middle East affairs. “Journalistic diversity in Europe is, then, largely illusory” (p. 48). Most news articles systematically omit or misrepresent any challenge to the prevailing social-democratic orthodoxy; and they routinely present the United States and Israel in a negative light.
Anti-Semitism is rampant. Europe has returned to the late 1930s, only now the situation is worse. Europeans cannot face the fact that the difference between a Muslim and an Islamist today is comparable to the difference between a German and a Nazi.
Israel also ignores this fact. Although the Left actually despises Islam, it pursues a pro-Palestinian position to win Israeli Arab votes needed to emasculate Judaism in Israel.
Meanwhile the so-called Right, which cannot think outside the box of democratic politics, says nothing about the treachery of the Left on the one hand, and Israel’s “fifth column” on the other. Israel is in danger of becoming “Israbia.”
