RUTHIE BLUM: WE SHOULD ACT ACCORDINGLY

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=9983

On Monday, the Israeli Counterterrorism Bureau issued strong travel warnings for ‎Israelis and Jews planning trips abroad, particularly to Western Europe, over the ‎upcoming holidays. Such advisories for Israelis are not new. Whenever there is a flare-up ‎of some kind involving terrorism against Jews, the government tells the public to be ‎especially cautious. But this week’s admonitions point to a specific, clear and present ‎danger.

Several factors are coming into play to make Israeli authorities sound the alert. The ‎recently paused war in Gaza is one. In spite of its defensive nature, Operation Protective ‎Edge was (and still is) portrayed by the international media as an act of Israeli aggression. ‎Demonstrations were held at Israeli embassies and consulates across the world, while ‎openly anti-Semitic incidents have been on a steady rise.

Meanwhile, the virulently anti-Israel Professor William Schabas was appointed by the U.N. ‎Human Rights Council to head the “inquiry” into “the widespread, systematic and gross ‎violations of international human rights and fundamental freedoms arising from the Israeli ‎military operations in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

The “Schabas Inquiry” — which Canadian MP Professor Irwin Cotler attacked last week in an ‎op-ed in The Jerusalem Post, for “not only presuppose[ing] Israeli criminality … but ‎mak[ing] no reference at all to Hamas’ spectrum of war crimes and crimes against ‎humanity” — is no small matter in this context, as it provides anti-Israel protesters all over ‎the world with a hefty stamp of approval.

It is therefore not surprising that Israel Prize laureate, actress Lea Koenig, in Holland ‎this week for the “Spot on Israeli Theater” festival, was verbally assaulted by Dutch ‎activists storming the premises and shouting anti-Israel epithets and pro-Gaza slogans. ‎Though the hecklers were removed and Koenig’s hosts profusely apologized, the ‎incident is indicative of the overall menacing atmosphere pervading Europe.‎

Another factor that has Israeli officials jumpy is the explosion on the scene of Islamic ‎State terrorists in Iraq and Syria. Due to their preferred method of annihilating “infidels” — televised decapitation — they have upstaged the rest of the Islamist barbarians in the ‎region, including Hamas. (It is thus that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a ‎point of declaring that “ISIS is Hamas and Hamas is ISIS.” He needed to explain to all ‎those Israel-bashers in the West, horrified by the beheadings of American journalists ‎James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines, that this is the kind ‎of threat Israel faces from Gaza and elsewhere along and within its borders.)‎

To make matters worse, the many hundreds of European-born Muslim radicals who have ‎gone to Iraq and Syria as ISIS recruits and trainees are returning to their home countries ‎to spread their ideology and sharpen their knives on the necks of “infidels” they ‎encounter on the streets of France and Britain. The example cited in the Israeli advisory is ‎the May 24 terrorist attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, in which four people were ‎killed, two of them Israelis. It emerged that the shootings were carried out by a French ‎Muslim, Medhi Nemmouche, who had just returned from Syria, where he took part in the ‎ISIS abduction and torture of Foley and Sotloff.‎

Then there’s the heightened threat emanating from Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah. Though ‎anti-ISIS for their own political reasons, they are also on the prowl for vacationing Jews ‎and Israelis to abduct and murder. After all, global jihad may have its share of internecine ‎strife, but the goal to slaughter Jews, Christians and impure Muslims on the way to ‎establishing an Islamic caliphate remains intact. ‎

As Israelis tend to be afflicted with a combination of claustrophobia and wanderlust, ‎airlines count on lots of business during the period between Rosh Hashana and the end ‎of Sukkot. ‎

This is not only because it is a chunk of time when schools are mostly out (on the heels of ‎a two-month summer vacation) and many places of employment function at half-mast; ‎but it is also ideal in terms of the weather: no longer warm, but not yet at the subzero ‎temperatures of winter. And since autumn is foreign to Israelis, there is something ‎enticing about taking a trip outside of the country at the end of September and beginning ‎of October to experience it.‎

It remains to be seen, then, whether the Counterterrorism Bureau warnings will be ‎heeded by a majority of travelers. Having only recently been released from Hamas’ ‎oppressive hold on the public through incessant rocket fire — forcing Israelis to spend July ‎and August in bomb shelters, rather than at the beach — the need to get away is ‎widespread.‎

Though foreign tourism to Israel came virtually to a halt this summer as a result of ‎Islamist aggression against the Jewish state, Israelis seem to harbor fewer fears about ‎dangers abroad. This is partly out of habit; living with terrorism at home makes venturing ‎outside less daunting.‎

But it is also a function of never experiencing old-style anti-Semitism — the kind that has ‎boldly come out of the closet in Europe again, thanks to Islamic propaganda against Israel ‎backed by the U.N. In this respect, Israelis are naive. ‎

It is one thing to be brave, or even fatalistic, when weighing risks about where terrorism ‎will strike. It is quite another to be so foolish as to believe that Europe is as safe for Jews ‎these days as Israel. Ask any French Jew who immigrated to Israel at the height of the ‎missile-and-mortar showers, and he will tell you that it is nothing compared to what is ‎going on in France.‎

It was not merely the Iron Dome system that kept Israeli casualties at a minimum during ‎the war in Gaza. More importantly, it was the fact that though Hamas posed a physical ‎threat, Israel itself did not constitute a hostile environment. Sadly, this cannot be said of ‎Europe today, which is why we Israeli Jews should consider ourselves forewarned and ‎act accordingly.‎

Ruthie Blum is the author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab ‎Spring.'”‎

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