Saturday, November 14, 2015

A grim omen


Dan Margalit, israelhayom.com

Image from, with caption: Bottles of Shiloh wine, which is produced and bottled at the Shiloh Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank

Excerpt:
The European Union's wheels of injustice grind slowly, but they eventually churn out their decisions, and the EU is now poised to issue guidelines to its member nations on the labeling of settlement products.
The export of settlement products to Europe amounts to only a fraction of all Israeli exports to the continent, but while the immediate repercussions will not be major, no one believes Israel-haters in European will stop there. ...
Morally speaking, this type of product labeling is akin to the yellow Star of David. It is the first step on a road whose end is unknown.
One has to wonder why Israel, which has known of the EU's intention for a while, has failed to take the proper countermeasures. It is unclear what the Foreign Ministry has done so far, or if Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy Minister Gilad Erdan has the time, or the budget, to properly address the issue.
It is clear, however, that only one government ministry should head the efforts to fight the decision, and the natural choice should be the Foreign Ministry. ...
The fight against product labeling should be two-pronged: It should include effective public diplomacy, underscoring how unjust the EU's decision is, and how it sanctions anti-Semitism by entities wishing to wipe Israel off the map; and it should include mass Israeli protests. ...

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