A wake-up call for the European Union - opinion

If the savage slaughter of over 1,000 unarmed civilians, including the elderly, women and children, is not proof enough that a leadership is vehement, cruel and merciless and hence should have all funding to it frozen, then what is?

Only yesterday, the European Union released a humane declaration regarding the shocking attack by armed Hamas operatives on rural civilian towns, villages and cities in southern Israel.

This well-planned, vicious attack was purposefully and cynically carried out against entire families on the Sabbath, which this year coincided with the Jewish festival of Simchat Torah. The purpose was crystal clear: to commit a massacre and to create fear and mass panic among civilians.

The results thereof were nothing short of horrifying – women brutally raped, bodies beheaded, babies torn apart, elderly women murdered on the streets, children made to watch their parents being slaughtered in front of their eyes, and more. Needless to add, this conjured up memories of a very different time, in a different place, in which six million Jews were brutally murdered simply for being Jewish.

Yet this was not enough. The perpetrators of these heinous crimes are the ones who unapologetically shared the images of these horrific acts on social media for the entire world to see. More so, they presented these acts as victorious, not cowardly; triumphant, not criminal; proud, not shameful.

Tens, if not hundreds, of innocent civilians were then abducted into Gaza, separating young children from their parents, including elderly Holocaust survivors and entire families. All this was done in full view of cheering, inciting of crowds, handing out candy and all-out celebration of this surreal, inhumane attack.

Instead of public services, terrorism. 

This was all done under the leadership which – instead of taking the billions of dollars that have been pouring in for years from the international arena for building infrastructure, creating sustainable sources of income, diversifying employment opportunities and extending educational platforms for its people – holds 2.2 million Palestinians under an unforgiving and forceful regime that nurtures only incitement to terrorism and military enhancements in order to destroy Israel.

This is the very leadership that cares very little for its own people and their needs, seeking only to glorify military goals that have nothing to do with the values of the Western world.

The Palestinian leadership in both Gaza and the West Bank – in contrast to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt – has not agreed to changing a single word in the schoolbooks that poison the minds of the young generation every single day against Israel, Jews and Western culture. One need not rely on these words alone, nor on subjective assessments. These are easily discernible facts.

Why reverse yesterday’s clear declaration and decision to suspend all further funding to the Palestinians and to reevaluate the mechanisms of supervision concerning where and for which purpose future funding may be used?

Why continue funding incitement, hatred, barbarism and militarism?

Why collaborate with the very perpetrators of crimes against humanity, shamelessly recorded by their own people?

The recent events have crossed many red lines, bringing to the surface that which Israelis have known and lived with for decades. These cruel leaderships are not ones with which Israel can move forward with a rational peace agreement. Feeding and nourishing these regimes with European taxpayers’ well-earned money will not in any way be helpful to the civilian Palestinian population. On the very contrary. It will only serve to enhance the decay, incitement, hatred, and horrifying acts of terrorism on Israelis to which the entire world was exposed in the last several days.

Do the right thing. Stop funding the Palestinian leadership. It will make a huge and positive impact.

The writer is a former member of Knesset and adviser to late Israeli president Shimon Peres.