Israel's Pivot to Asia

It’s no wonder they hate Israel.

While the Muslim Middle East continues to destroy itself and works to export its death dance to Western Europe and America, Israel has assessed the situation and is pivoting toward Asia.

Better to forge commercial ties with Asia than to depend on a Europe that is increasingly anti-Semitic and that has been trying to solve its Muslim problem by turning against Israel.

Obviously, the Israeli pivot is not good news for that other group of Israel haters: the Boycott, Divest, Sanction crowd. Especially prominent on American university campuses this group wants to punish Israel for being a beacon of hope in a region that is being engulfed by darkness. And they want to do so by engaging in economic warfare.

What’s an Israeli Prime Minister to do?

Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen to protect his nation by pivoting toward Asia.

As stories of terrorist violence invade the media and occupy our minds, Reuters reports on the Israeli commercial initiative:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday a wave of anti-Semitism and what he called "Islamisation" in Western Europe are factors in a Jewish state push to expand trade with Asia.

Europe is Israel's biggest trading partner, but deepening diplomatic disputes over policy toward the Palestinians and anti-Jewish incidents such as a Jan. 9 attack by an Islamist gunman on a Paris kosher deli have triggered Israeli worries.

Netanyahu, who is also finance minister and a free-market champion, cast his courting of China, India and Japan over the past two years as a partial response to European developments.

He was due to host a Japanese government and business delegation led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday.

"I put emphasis on markets to the East not because we want to give up on other markets. But we definitely want to reduce our dependence on certain markets in western Europe," Netanyahu told his cabinet in remarks at which reporters were present, without naming specific countries.

"Western Europe is undergoing a wave of Islamisation, of anti-Semitism, and of anti-Zionism. It is awash in such waves, and we want to ensure that for years to come the State of Israel will have diverse markets all over the world."

Why is it that when Americans talk about diversity they never refer to the importance of having diverse markets?