Rael Jean Isaac

An Independent Kosovo

It’s not often we side with Russia and China but in ignoring Serbia’s legitimate claims to Kosovo (legally part of Serbia and the cradle of its civilization) and promoting another Moslem state in the Balkans, the Bush administration is taking a step profoundly inimical to the interests of the U.S., the West and international stability. It has split the EU, with countries like Spain, worried about its own Basque separatists, opposing recognition. Needless to say, the 57 country Organization of the Islamic Conference is enthusiastic—which should be enough in itself to give the West pause. EU foreign ministers supportive of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence drafted a statement declaring this a “one-off,” which shouldn’t set a precedent elsewhere. But of course it will set a precedent, encouraging geographically concentrated ethnic minorities to follow in the Kosovo Liberation Army’s footsteps, using violence and the threat of violence to achieve their aims.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the EU was eager to close the book on “two decades of violence and conflict and strife” in the western Balkans. For Miliband and anyone else who thinks this will foster stability or multi-cultural harmony in the Balkans, there’s a bridge for sale in Brooklyn. On the contrary, George Friedman asserts in the Stratfor Intelligence newsletter, the U.S. and the EU are tossing out the principle that has formed the basis for European stability since World War II, namely that outside powers cannot redefine recognized international boundaries, which can be changed only through mutual agreement.

On the truly important issues—reining in Iran’s nuclear weapons program, putting pressure on North Korea to live up to its commitments—the U.S. will have undercut such ability as it had to obtain Russian and Chinese cooperation. Indeed the Russians could well step up support for Iran as a response to the West’s ignoring what Russia has defined as a fundamental interest. And for what purpose is the U.S. recognizing Kosovo’s independence? As a Washington Times editorial (Feb. 19) noted, the Kosovo Liberation Army (whose veterans are bound to assume a major role in an independent Kosovo) was among the first international terror groups linked to al Qaeda in the late 1990s, its members training at al Qaeda training camps. Lawlessness and terrorism are likely to fester inside an independent Kosovo, an economic basket case rife with mafia-style criminal gangs, drug running and corruption, just like adjoining Moslem Albania. In the clash of civilizations, the U.S. has just struck a blow for the other side.

As for the frequently cited bromide that the Kosovars are “moderate Moslems,” Israeli Knesset member Aryeh Eldad reminds us that “it was from these moderate Moslems that Haj Amin El-Husseini gathered tens of thousands of volunteers for the 13th SS Division (Handschar) and 21st SS Division (Skanderbeg).” On them he built his dream of marching with Hitler’s armies into Palestine and destroying the Jews of (then) Palestine.

For Israel, the implications are ominous. In the December 2007 Outpost, we quoted a paper published by the Begin-Sadat center: “The theory that outside powers can award part of a state’s sovereign territory to a violent ethnic or religious minority would put in question not only Judea and Samaria…but even such areas as the southern Galilee and parts of the Negev, where non-Jews have, or may eventually acquire, local majorities.”

Going further, Israel Harel, writing in Haaretz (Feb. 21), says “Kosovo is already here.” He notes that in Galilee the Arabs are already a majority, with Jews steadily leaving the area since the Arab riots of October 2000, which cut off access to Jewish communities there. Similarly in the Negev, Harel writes, “the Bedouin are taking over large stretches of land almost without hindrance….This inertia will probably continue, with the Zionist state financing…a population that is de facto establishing a Palestinian state within the sovereign State of Israel—separate, of course, from the Palestinian state that the Arabs are pushing for in Judea and Samaria.”

Serbia at least has Russia and China backing her claims to Kosovo, which has meant the UN, where they exercise veto power, could not be used as an instrument for giving legitimacy to Kosovo’s independence. With the U.S. now endorsing the principle that a local majority trumps recognized boundaries, Israel in future could find itself cut into small ribbons by a unanimous Security Council.

By Those They Honor…

Last month we reported that Israel’s Emet Prize went to Israel-defamer Avishai Margalit. This month there is yet worse to report: Israel’s highest prestige prize, the Israel prize, went to Ze’ev Sternhell of the Hebrew University, whom the judges described as “one of the leading scholars in the field of political since the year was not yet one month old) came from the English Daily Mail: “Government Renames Islamic Terrorism as ‘Anti-Islamic Activity’ to Woo Moslems.” As Steyn notes, “Her Majesty’s Government is engaging not merely in Orwellian Newspeak but in self-defeating Orwellian Newspeak. The broader message it sends is that ours is a weak culture so unconfident and insecure that if you bomb us and kill us our first urge is to find a way to flatter and apologize to you.”

Then there’s the Archbishop of Canterbury who argued that sharia law should be given equal status with English law in Britain, with people being allowed to choose which system they wanted. To quote Melanie Phillips: “The implications of this are simply staggering. One law for all is the very basis of legal and social justice and is the glue that binds a society together….To enable people to chop and choose between jurisdictions would destroy the unitary nature of British society and fragment the country.”

While the Archbishop later denied he said what he said, Anne Applebaum, writing in The New York Sun, asserts the actual speech was even worse than the way it was reported. Despite an initial firestorm of complaints, the establishment closed ranks, not against sharia law, but around the Archbishop.

The more flaccid English politicians become, the more British Moslems flex their muscles. The (London) Sunday Telegraph of February 3 reports that female Moslem medical students are challenging a new Department of Health hygiene rule designed to stop the spread of deadly superbugs. At several hospitals they are refusing to roll up their sleeves when washing their hands on the grounds this is regarded as immodest in Islam. The Islamic Medical Association has come to their support: “No practicing Muslim woman—doctor, medical student, nurse or patient – should be forced to bare her arms below the elbow.”

By Their Friends

If societies reveal their values by those they honor, a man can be judged in part by his friends. Take The New Yorker’s star investigative reporter (and defamer of Israel) Seymour Hersh. Ibrahim Mousawi, editor of Hezbollah’s Alintiqad weekly newspaper declares: “I have many Jewish friends around the world, such as Stanley Cohen and Seymour Hersh.” Hersh, who sees himself as a brave iconoclast, recently appeared on Al Jazeera to cater tamely to the Moslem world’s paranoid conviction that Jews control U.S. policy. He declared that Hamas wanted peaceful coexistence and as for U.S. policy on Israel “it’s very hard you know, in America there’s just no questioning. The American Jewish influence is enormous. There’s a lot of money.”

A Photo Speaks

We are accustomed on television to seeing the accused, bent over, often with a hood over his shamefaced head, being marched off by the police. Nothing better captures the triumph of Moslem terrorists in Europe than this photo. Accused terrorist Mohammad Ayub walks bare-faced, head high, while the Spanish police, fearful of identification by their captive’s terror cohorts, hide their faces behind ski-masks.