The sufferings of the Jewish people, it goes without saying, never aroused significant sympathy. Far from it. As ever, Jews constituted fashionable foes, whereas pro-Arab sentiments, especially under the Palestinian label, became de rigueur. Trendy Israeli left-wingers eagerly jumped at the opportunity of luxuriating in the ambiance of European enlightenment and winning coveted approval and acceptance.

If their own country is denigrated as uncool and oppressive, then local leftists must dissociate themselves from its cause as vociferously and militantly as can be, lest they be suspected of allegiance to the forces of darkness.

Thus originated Israel's unique brand of post-modern universalism. It evinces no qualms about jeopardizing the self-determination of the ancient Jewish people, while at the same time espousing the ideal of self-determination for Palestinians, whose nationhood is a recent invention cynically calculated to
counterbalance renascent Jewish national independence.

The unadorned bottom line is that for these Israeli progressives, who freely avail themselves of the benefits of Jewish tolerance and democracy, anything that basically furthers the interests of the Jewish state, and steels it against unmitigated assaults, is anathema. Hence their heart-rendering outcry against legislation which curbs burgeoning Arab migration into the Jewish state under the guise of family reunions - another of the blessings showered upon us by the Oslo process.

During the Oslo decade, over 200,000 Arabs moved willy-nilly into Israel.

The "right of return" is unofficially and furtively being implemented under our very noses. This, coupled with an incredible birth-rate and inordinately generous welfare allotments, promises to overrun even Green-Line Israel with Arabs and tip the demographic scales against the Jews.

Such danger hardly flusters champions of "a state of all its citizens" as distinct from those who benightedly cling to outmoded aspirations for a Jewish state. Belated attempts to defend that state against encroaching conquest are an obvious target for sanctimonious denunciations.

It was hardly surprising that an enraged Yossi Sarid fumed against what he called "racism," resorting to inflammatory vocabulary that invites international pressure. It was only to be expected that guardians of our morality would seek redress from the Supreme Court, where Jewish survival often takes a back seat to universalist niceties.

It's no wonder so many crocodile tears were shed for mixed Israeli-Arab and Palestinian-Arab couples, who'll have to set up households east of the Green Line. Conjugal bliss is apparently only possible on Israel's turf.

THOUGH THE European Union lodged a formal complaint against the new law, the problem isn't uniquely Israeli. According to demographic predictions, Copenhagen will have a Muslim majority in 30 years - a fact which impelled the Danes to get tougher with nuptial immigration. The danger in our case is existential and of incomparable severity.

Palestinians, moreover, want their territory judenrein. This is what motivates their anti-settlement campaign, in which foolish Jews collaborate so carelessly.

The current Palestinian war against the settlements is the direct heir to their war on aliya in the midst of the Holocaust. Among his other activities, then Palestinian leader Haj Amin el-Husseini scuttled a plan to rescue 10,000 Jewish children from Hitler's gas chambers on the grounds that "little Jews grow to become big Jews."

So much for the moral high ground.

Let there be no mistake. We're still fighting the same fight for our continued existence. The bare, if politically incorrect truth is that Israelis who give succour to the Arab anti-Jewish battle, in whatever mutating form, cross the lines. Those who plan to revive the Voice of Peace from Ramallah do so not only figuratively. It's not for nothing that they are welcomed precisely where two IDF reservists were hideously lynched.

It serves Palestinian interests to tolerate gullible Jews intent on helping them entice Israeli youths with inane music laced with soft-sell propaganda.

It's the same insidious method used by Californian Iva Toguri, who came to be identified as Tokyo Rose and spent 10 years in an American prison for her pro-Japanese World War II broadcasts to American troops. The difference, though, is that she was trapped in Japan at the war's outset and was coerced to speak for the enemy, unlike Brooklyn-born William Joyce, better known as Lord Haw-Haw, who was executed by the British for his pro-German wartime broadcasts, with which he wholeheartedly identified. In both cases, the message was often one of peace (as the Axis envisioned it).

But there will be no horrific consequences in the case of Israelis promoting a vision of peace from Ramallah, sanctioned by Arab nationalists and compatible with their aims. The irony of our existence is that the very Israel so avidly disparaged as racist is actually self-destructively liberal.

Not a hint of criticism was heard in any of our media reports about the projected Ramallah radio venture. Its initiators were, in fact, feted as cultural near-heroes. The accolades accorded them were, needless to stress, in stark contrast to denigrating portrayals of Arutz 7 as the vilest incarnation of wireless piracy.

The voice of Israeli patriotism is condemned, while commendation is bestowed on the lulling and tempting Siren song of implacable enemies masquerading as peace partners. Israeli patriots are shunned and maligned, while the Palestinians' Jewish comrades are popularized.

The latter, incidentally, are financed by (who else?) the EU, which shares the Israeli Left's discomfort with the Jewish state and its "sinful" birth.

Our homemade radicals emulate their European soulmates' desire to atone for the West's transgressions by beating Jewish breasts. Posing before History's mirror, they cast themselves in the role of altruistic do-gooders, suitably ashamed of their country and seeking to cleanse themselves of its collective guilt.

They don't hate themselves, only their nation. Having identified the Palestinian cause with absolute virtue, they have no option but to single out Israel as absolute villain. These high-minded seekers of universalist justice aren't exceedingly likely to deem their own nation worthy of compassion and understanding, even if it again becomes the victim.

Don't underestimate their penchant for blaming the Jews for Jewish misfortunes.