From "Blood Libel" to "Land Libel"

For a continent that prides itself on the glory and depth of its civilization over the centuries, Europe sure has a lot of work still to do when it comes to its treatment of the Jewish people.

For hundreds of years, European attitudes toward the Jews were essentially shaped by a spiteful and malicious lie.

And in that sense, at least, very little seems to have changed.

For while they once charged us with the “blood libel”, saying that we illicitly used other people’s blood, various European leaders now falsely tar us instead with “land libel”, asserting that we have taken other people’s territory.

And just as they once blamed the Jews for all sorts of catastrophes, such as the Black Death, they now seek to lay various world crises at our doorstep, too.

Take, for example, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's address the other day at a banquet in London, where he outlined his view of how to resolve the crisis in the Middle East.

In an astonishing display of delusion masquerading as analysis, Blair essentially sought to convince his audience that the "core" of all the region's troubles - and yes, even those of Iraq - are somehow connected with the Jewish state.

"A major part of the answer to Iraq lies not in Iraq itself but outside it, in the whole of the region," Blair said, adding that it is necessary to adopt what he terms a "whole Middle East" strategy.

And then, after suggesting that the current focus on Syria and Iran is misplaced, Blair added the clincher: "On the contrary, we should start with Israel/Palestine. That is the core."

The core?

What on earth is he talking about?

To suggest that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is somehow connected with the Baathist insurgency in Iraq, or with Syria's desire to strangle Lebanon, or Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara, or Sudan's acts of murder in Darfur, or any of the myriad other intra-Arab conflicts in the region, is not only intellectually vacuous, it is downright silly.

Worse yet, it is a cheap and transparent attempt to mollify the Arab states by parroting their party line of "don’t blame us for our region's troubles, blame the Jews".

In promoting this hogwash, Blair is deflecting attention from the real, underlying cause of the region's ills, namely, the Arab world's lack of freedom, democracy, tolerance and mutual respect.

While courting the Arabs may prove useful to Mr. Blair as he plans for his retirement next year, we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking that it will make the Middle East a safer or more peaceful place.

Instead, it is just one more sorry example of just how Europe's underlying approach toward the Jew has yet to really change.

Will Iran & Syria Get Away with Murder?

Irrespective of whether the UN-mandated ceasefire in Lebanon holds up in the coming days, a grave injustice has already been done to the people of the region, and it can not be allowed to stand.

The two main state sponsors of this entire bloody affair – Syria and Iran – have gotten off scot-free despite wreaking havoc and sowing instability throughout the entire Middle East.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 does not even mention either of these countries, nor does it impose any form of punishment on them for their nefarious actions.

As various observers have already pointed out, the terrorists of Hizbullah are proxies carrying out the will of their paymasters in Damascus and Teheran.

It was the Baathist regime in Syria and the Khomeinist regime in Iran which planned, financed and orchestrated the past month of violence and bloodshed, and they can not, and must not, be permitted to have done so with impunity.

Allowing Bashar al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to get away with murder is not only a gross act of injustice – it is also an invitation to these two madmen to connive and scheme still further, and plan future atrocities against Israel and the West.

The value of the piece of paper approved by the UN will presumably become apparent in the coming days.

But of one thing we can already be certain: Assad and Ahmadinejad are surely having a good laugh together, knowing full well that while they may have done the crime, it is someone else entirely that is being forced to pay the price.

Ignore Blair's Bullying

Under fire at home for refusing to state when he will step down as premier, Britain's Tony Blair will visit Israel this weekend to try and squeeze the Jewish state into making concessions to the Palestinians.

Facing a revolt from within his own Labor party, many of whose members have opposed his support for the war in Iraq, Blair may well be tempted to try and calm their fury by pressing Israel.

According to media reports, Blair will stress to Olmert that progress in talks with the Palestinian Authority is "vital", even as Olmert seeks to focus on the Iranian threat in their discussions.

Simply put – Israel should ignore Blair and not take his demands all too seriously. He is a lame-duck Prime Minister who is vastly unpopular at home and who will be out of office within a year, at most.

Tossing Blair a political bone won't appease the British premier's critics at home, and it certainly won't help Israel's interests, either.

The best thing Olmert can do is to be a gracious host, offer Mr. Blair some tea, and when he starts making demands, simply show him the door and send him back into the waiting arms of his Labor party rebels back home in London.