29-Oct-15: European politician: Being opposed to throat-cutting is not a pro-Israel position

Hate speech personified: PA president Abbas salutes
unrepentant terrorists, freed from life terms in prison
under US pressure, December 31, 2013 [Image Source]

Some helpful observations here from Lars Göran Peter Adaktusson, a Swedish journalist, television news anchor and now politician in Sweden's Christian Democrats. Since being elected to the European Parliament in 2014, he has become a member of its Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Subcommittee on Human Rights.

In an op ed about the wave of stabbings, rammings, shootings and vitriol directed by Palestinian Arabs at Israelis, he suggests that they

are symptomatic of a malaise in Palestinian society that the international partners, and Europe, in particular, have been trying to duck for several decades: hate speech and incitement to violence. For sure, this is not as quantifiable or traceable as housing construction in settlements, roadblocks or checkpoints, and yes, it will take a long-term policy-oriented approach that the European governments have proven to date they lack an appetite for, particularly in matters of foreign affairs. Nevertheless, hate speech and incitement to terror are at the core of the conflict as much as partition of land is. European leaders should call things as they are and stop the ever-present balancing act of politically correctness... [Lars Adaktusson's op ed on the Ynet site, published October 28, 2015]

Source

Addressing the critically-important matter of European funding of the PA, he says:

While we are engaged in state-building measures, with funds and expertise, we should condition all the EU funds for the territories on an actual Palestinian renouncement to hate and incitement to violence. Building a Palestinian society who will see cutting people’s throats as abhorrent as it is for any western society is not a pro-Israeli position. It falls into the oft forgotten category: the right thing to do.

In the spirit of the-right-thing-to-do, Adaktsson and 10 other members of the European Parliament sent a letter in March 2015 calling on the EU to cut the financial flow to organizations actively promoting terror "as the best way to fight terrorism". And even if not the best, it's without a doubt a constructive step in the right direction.