Posted on 03/03/2003 5:04:19 AM PST by SJackson
Just one more thing about France. Considering all the analysis of the country's motives for trying to thwart a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, one gathers that France is out to prove its "relevance"; that French president Jacques Chirac is "bent on securing his place in history"; that France wants to counterbalance American might by taking its rightful place at the head of a united Europe. In other words, it seems that all of France's histrionics -- what was it foreign minister Dominique de Villepin said, straight-faced, at "this temple of the United Nations" about France always standing "upright in the face of history before mankind"? -- boil down to one big power grab.
But where's the muscle? With Britain, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia -"New Europe" -- joining President Bush's "coalition of the willing," you'd think the old cheese stands alone (except for Germany and Belgium). France, however, doesn't share this impression. So, what backs up Chirac's big talk? Robert Kagan, strategist of the new book "Of Paradise and Power" might answer that nothing does. His nifty theory on what really separates the United States and Europe -- that the United States fully expects to exercise power in an anarchic, Hobbesian world, while Europeans believe they have evolved "beyond power" into a "world of laws and rules and transnational negotiation" -- assumes that traditional notions of "power" in Europe are increasingly beside the point.
This notion suggests that what we're witnessing in France is a matter of, well, gall, both insupportable and unsupported. But I'm not so sure. France may have something besides vetoes and resolutions up its sleeve, something that trumps NATO and, if necessary, the EU -- or at least allows the French to think so. That "something" is its deeply layered, binding relationship with the Arab-Muslim world.
It seems that what helps make the French so cavalier about the Atlantic alliance is its place in a bona fide Mediterranean bloc. This goes beyond the lucrative oil concessions and weapons contracts with Iraq we hear about. It involves a complex relationship at every level -- economic, educational, religious, artistic, legal, demographic -- between France and the Arab-Muslim world, a surprisingly overlooked collaboration that now includes the rest of the EU nations in what is officially known as the Euro-Arab Dialogue.
Purchasing this book -- linked in 2nd paragraph -- helps fund JWR
Over roughly 30 years, this Dialogue has led to a change in European, and particularly French, culture of a magnitude at first difficult to grasp. The historian Bat Ye'or -- perhaps as great a prophet as she is a path-breaking historian -- pinpoints the origins of this transformation in a stunning article, "European Fears of the Gathering Jihad". It all began, she writes, with the terms of a terrible bargain struck between Europe, largely at France's instigation, and the Arab League countries around the time of the Arab oil embargo of 1973: oil and business markets for Europe in exchange for anti-Israel policies for the Arab world.
"The Europeans tried to maintain the Dialogue on a base of economic relations, while the Arab countries tied the oil and business markets to the European alignment on their anti-Israeli policies," she writes. "However, the Dialogue was not restricted to influencing European foreign policy against Israel and detaching Europe from America. It also aimed at establishing ... a massive Arab-Muslim presence (in Europe) by the immigration and settlement of millions of Muslims." The goal? As Ye'or sees it, "to integrate Europe and the Arab-Muslim world into one political and economic bloc, by mixing populations (multiculturalism), weakening the Atlantic solidarity, and isolating America."
This sounds like a Dialogue worth listening to
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
It takes 20 Frogs to equal one Texan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.