Western Europe, not Iran or Palestinians, Israel main challenge in 2015 says Liberman

The number one challenge facing Israel in 2015 is not the Palestinians, Iran or Hezbollah, but rather western Europe, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Sunday.

Liberman, speaking at the foreign ministry to a gathering of Israel's ambassadors in Europe, said that Europe's record in various international forums underscores the dilemma. For instance, at last week's UN Security Council vote on the Palestinian resolution calling for a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines in three years, France and Luxembourg voted for the proposal, while Britain and Lithuania abstained. [...]

Liberman said that the behavior of countries like Sweden and Ireland toward Israel is reminiscent of Europe’s behavior toward Czechoslovakia on the eve of the appeasement of the Nazis in Munich in 1938. He said that just as Europe abandoned its closest ally in 1938, so the policies of countries like Sweden and Ireland toward Israel is one of abandonment, and the explanation of why it is is possible to abandon Israel. And this is happening, he said, even though Israel “is the only country that represents western values in the Middle East. Liberman has said he will not meet the foreign minister of Sweden when she visits the country this month, because of that country’s recognition of “Palestine,” and the duplicitous way in which he felt it was done. He said that some of the discussion in European Parliament, and the parliaments of Ireland and Sweden when they took up the question of whether to recognize “Palestine,” included lies and fabrications that amounted to “another chapter in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Sometimes you are shocked at how people who are supposed to be respected and serious make things up and brazenly lie during simple discussions where you expect some depth and knowledge of the things they talk about.” He said that Europe was mistakenly linking bilateral ties with Israel to the Palestinian issue, and that Israel needed to point out that this was leading to an unprecedented rise in anti-Semitism in Europe.

More: Jerusalem Post