By Schmoel Yitzhak
Surprise! Surprise! The European Union and its Quartet of political musicians are preparing another symphony of concessions from Israel for the Arabs (alias "Palestinians") so that they don't mess around with a United Nations General Assembly resolution endorsing a "state" alongside Israel.
What else can one expect from Germany, which has rapidly diminished memory about a Holocaust; or France which abetted the Nazi's Final Solution more than the civilized world realizes.
With Quartets like these who needs enemies?
But wait a minute; why even pay attention to these alleged fair-minded fellows when there is an issue they seem to constantly ignore -- the freeing of Gilad Schalit.
How long do you imagine that any of the individual Quartet nations would have tolerated the abduction of one of their soldiers without massive retaliation?
Imagine if Schalit was an American soldier and he had been abducted by a known Canadian terrorist group; and that the gang North of the border began making demands to the White House for the GI's release.
The president's response would be swift and harsh beginning with a formal demand that the enlisted man be released immediately.
That failing, the president would impose an embargo on all trade with Canada and then would close the border.
If by that time, the American version of Schalit had not been released, war would be declared and Uncle Sam would keep upping the military ante until the Gi was released.
Israel's response has been far too lenient ever since the soldier was captured.
Jerusalem should immediately have issued a firm ultimatum to Hamas; either release Schalit or services will progressively be shut down in Gaza; that would include electricity, water -- all essentials.
You can bet that as the sanctions increased -- and the rest of the world issued its S.O.S.s -- pleas from the European Union, America and, of course, the UN would be heard. And you could be darn sure that so much pressure would be put on Hamas that Schalit would have been released.
But Benjamin Netanyahu has treated Hamas behavior toward Schalit with kid gloves thus encouraging the terrorists to snub their noses at the thought of a humanitarian response.
When the Red Cross recently requested that Hamas allow contact with the soldier, the international organization was repudiated -- and that was that.
Because of widespread Jew-hating throughout Europe and parts of South America -- not to mention the usual Arab suspects in the Middle East -- Israel never gets a fair hearing regarding Schalit -- or any other issue -- and yet nobody in the world seems to care.
Most recently a congress of European diplomats was convened by Luxembourg. The aim was supposed to be a serious discussion of ways and means to unravel the eternally-deadlocked Middle East "peace process" -- we all know that that term is a joke, don't we? -- and the invitations were numerous.
Along with the traditional British, French, Swiss, Spanish, Belgian, et. al. delegates, invitees included a host of Arab representatives as well as the Palestinian Authority.
Ostensibly, the object was to arrange some sort of peace narrative between the Arabs and the Israelis. That -- in and of itself -- is a noble challenge.
There was only one obstacle; there was no representative of Israel invited to the conclave.
Thus, we were treated to a reasonable facsimile of so many United Nations committees, groups, etc. which specialize in a total and reprehensible gang-up on the only democratic state in the Middle East. How could there ever be a fair-minded discussion without even allowing a representative of Israel to be present and present his case.
Meanwhile, President Obama has dispatched his usual cadre of "peacemakers" to Israel, urging Bibi to make concessions while the Arabs continue their policy of NO-NO-NO-ING anything that would suggest a compromise.
With Egypt, Syria and Libya in perpetual turmoil and Gaza still at odds with the PA over who should lead whom, it would be the height of folly for Israel to concede anything; especially when any Arab leader who receives concessions could be an EX-leader within a month.
Perhaps Obama's peace-seeker, Dennis Ross, should start right at the beginning with a reasonable humanitarian request: free Gilad Schalit, OR ELSE!
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