by Srdja Trifkovic
There are many self-styled friends of Israel in the United States who have been enthusiastically supportive of Kosovo’s independence for years. People like Sen. Joe Lieberman, Rep. Elliot Engel, Morton Abramowitz, William Kristol, Douglas Feith and many others appear to be motivated by the hope that favors to a supposedly moderate Muslim group in the Balkans may buy some brownie points for America—and by extension for Israel—in the Islamic world. That delusion was stated brazenly yet eloquently by the late Rep. Tom Lantos during a House hearing on Kosovo last April:
Just a reminder to the predominantly Muslim-led governments in this world that
here is yet another example that the United States leads the way for the creation of a predominantly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe. This should be noted by both responsible leaders of Islamic governments, such as Indonesia, and also for jihadists of all color and hue. The United States’ principles are universal, and in this instance, the United States stands foursquare for the creation of an overwhelmingly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe.
Israel is some thousands of miles away from the heady Beltway air (and whatever they are putting in their water inside it), and such inanities cut no ice there. Writing in the Jerusalem Post on February 21 (“Kosovo’s Stark Warning”), Caroline Glick, one of Israel’s most prominent columnists, pleads for Israel to join Russia, China and others in not recognizing Kosovo for the sake of its own existential interests. “The fledgling failed-state of Kosovo is a great boon for the global jihad,” she warns. It has been used as bases for al-Qaida operations, members of the ruling KLA have direct links to al-Qaida, and “the Islamic world as a whole perceived Kosovo’s fight for independence from Serbia as a jihad for Islamic domination of the disputed province” :
For Israel, Kosovo’s US-backed declaration of independence should be a source of
alarm great enough to require a rethinking of foreign policy. Unfortunately, rather than understand and implement the lessons of Kosovo, the Olmert-Livni-Barak government is working actively to ensure that they are reenacted in the international community’s treatment of Israel and the Palestinians.
In the meantime the neoconservative-neoliberal disconnect between aiding and abetting Muslim designs in the Balkans and “fighting the Global War on Terror” is growing deeper. The appeasement has never yielded any dividends, but repeated failure only prompts the architects of the policy to redouble their efforts—as Under-Secretary of State Nicholas Burns proved on February 18, a day after the Kosovo declaration. Noting approvingly recognitions of Kosovo by Turkey and Afghanistan and “a very strong and supportive comment by the Organization of the Islamic Conference,” he reminded his audience that “Kosovo is going to be a vastly majority Muslim state, given the fact that 92 to 94 percent of their population is Muslim. And we think it is a very positive step that this Muslim state, Muslim majority state, has been created today.”
If it is intrinsically “a very positive step” for the United States that a “vastly Muslim state” is created inside a non-Muslim state, in an area ethnically cleansed of non-Muslims, it stands to reason that Washington will be equally supportive of any putative Islamistan from western Macedonia to southern Bulgaria to the northern Caucasus, and one day perhaps even Palestine.
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Pertinent Links:
1) Kosovo: A Threat to Israel’s Survival
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