A quote from Srdja Trifkovic at the Chronicles website, 26 February 2008

The Palestinians “should follow Kosovo’s example and unilaterally declare independence” if peace talks with Israel fail, Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top aide to the PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared on February 20. “Kosovo is not better than Palestine,” he added. If the United States and the majority of the European Union “have embraced the independence of Kosovo, why shouldn’t this happen with Palestine as well?”

Dr. [Condoleezza] Rice, Mr. [Under-Secretary of State Nicholas] Burns et al would reply “because we say so,” but Israeli analysts are not impressed. Col. Shaul Shay, an expert on Islamic radicalism at BESA (Begin-Sadat) Center at Bar-Ilan, thus notes that when the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended, terrorist infrastructures remained there and served as a basis for the Islamic terror activities in Kosovo:

Today, the Balkans serve as a forefront on European soil for Islamic terror organizations, which exploit this area to promote their activities in Western Europe, and other focal points worldwide ... [T]he establishment of an independent Islamic territory including Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania along the Adriatic Coast, is one of the most prominent achievements of Islam since the siege of Vienna in 1683. Islamic penetration into Europe through the Balkans is one of the main achievements of Islam in the twentieth century.

The main danger, as he and other prominent Israelis see it, is that the U.S. recognition of Kosovo endorses the principle that a solution to an intractable political and territorial quarrel can and should be imposed by outside countries,
 
 
A quote from Julia Gorin at politicalmavens.com, 22 April 2007
 
Below is an exclusive report from Tuesday’s open hearing of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs:
 
At the hearing, titled “The Outlook for the Independence of Kosova” (the Islamic and dhimmi spelling of the province), Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) – Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee – said the following:

Just a reminder to the predominantly Muslim-led government[s] 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.

[...] Clinton holdover Nicholas Burns, State Dept. Under Secretary for Political Affairs, was the special Witness. He reiterated the U.S. position that immediate independence without standards or compromise is the only acceptable solution, because the growing violence is what guides our Kosovo policy:

It’s our view that we have now [to] act resolutely in the coming weeks…we looked at this very carefully with our European friends. And we said, are we better off supporting a solution in the spring of 2007 or delaying a year or two? We became convinced in looking at it, all of us, that the prospects for violence would be greater if we waited. Because 92 to 94 percent of the people who now live in Kosovo are Albanian Muslims. They have been waiting a long, long time…And so we the international community must act.

The State Dept. representative has just asserted that explosive Muslims will attack if we don’t give them what they want – now. He also didn’t miss the opportunity to invoke the usual Nazi imagery in reference to the Serbs — who have been getting hacked to pieces over the past eight years by Albanians — while praising the Kosovo prime minister Agim Ceku, an indicted Serb-slaughterer, as “impressive” and “worthy”.
 
[...] Amid this theater of the absurd, Diane Edith Watson (D-CA) stood out as a rare voice of dissent on Kosovo:

I know the undersecretary will probably stress how unique the situation regarding Serbia and Kosovo is. But I would ask my colleagues to reflect on this for a moment and think about the reality of this statement. There are a dozen such unique situations around the globe, yet I do not see the United States advocating the independence of Somaliland from Somalia, the independence of Taiwan from China, nor the independence of Kurdistan from Iraq or Turkey […]

Burns’ appalling response to Watson’s concerns:

…Kosovo is different… and we believe that achieving the independence of Kosovo will not lead others to justify similar treatment from the United Nations or from the United States itself.

 
[…] As Sherrie Gossett wrote recently in The New Individualist magazine:

In October 2005, some six years after Kosovo became a UN protectorate, Norwegian Ambassador to NATO Kai Eide published a review of how Kosovo was meeting UN-set standards. “With regard to the foundation of a multi-ethnic society,” Eide wrote, “the situation is grim.” …The report also cited “widespread illegal occupation of property.” Prosecution of serious crimes was said to be hindered by “family or clan solidarity and by the intimidation of witnesses as well as of law enforcement and judicial officials.” Failure to prosecute crimes targeting minorities was said to result in a climate of “impunity.”

The piece de resistance on Tuesday came from Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY):

And I want to in a bipartisan fashion commend President Bush and the administration, President Clinton as well. Both presidents understand that this issue needed and needs to be resolved. And the president, President Bush, has been steadfast in saying that this really needs to be done now.
 
…And I couldn’t agree with you more, Mr. Burns, that the possibility of violence if we delay is something that increases as we delay. People there have been waiting for years, and now really is the time.

 
At the height of the March, 2004 Kosovo pogrom against Serbs, in which another 4,000 Serbs fled the province and scores of homes, churches and monasteries were set ablaze, Engel – who has said he wants to be the first U.S. lawmaker to stand on independent Kosovo soil – addressed the House of Representatives:

When there is no resolution of the final status, the people in a country become restless because they see no future… Right now there is rampant unemployment. Right now there is very little hope for a future…Self-determination and, ultimately, independence for the people of Kosovo is the only solution. When people do not see a chance for self-determination, tensions fester beneath the surface when you do not move to resolution… What we have seen…is this ridiculous plan called standards before status.

These are the same words used to excuse or justify terrorism against Israelis. For a Jewish congressman to be advocating statehood before standards is interesting indeed. Let the record show that Engel is for rewarding terror with independence. Palestine, take note.
 
Also from Engel at Tuesday’s hearing: “[T]he Kosovars are pro-American, so pro-American it isn’t funny, and they will be a strong ally of the United States and of NATO and of the European Union.”
 
But an officially sanctioned narco-terrorist gangster state that was won with material help from al Qaeda will hurt us as much as it will pretend to help. Are we really supposed to operate under “the illusion that concessions to violence and the threat of violence can promote the creation of a moderate Muslim democracy?” asks Jim Jatras of the American Council for Kosovo.
 
Burns joined in this charade:

…There’s a street named after President Clinton; there’s a street named after Congressman Engel, and I hope there’ll be a street… named after President Bush because this has been a bipartisan effort, Democrats and Republicans.

There are also avenues named for Bob Dole and Wesley Clark, two highly prized Albanian purchases. But when good will is acquired by doing someone’s bidding, pro-Americanism is won for the wrong reasons, and the gratitude will turn on a dime the moment we stop furthering that party’s agenda. In Kosovo, it began happening as early as 2000, when the Kosovars started calling for the UN and NATO “occupiers” to get out. Nor do the American and British flags hanging upside-down from Pristina’s Victory Hotel bode well for the future of pro-Americanism in “Kosova”.