Why Europe Hates Israel

FREEMAN E-MAIL LIST ^ | November 29, 2001 | By Bret Stephens, an editorial page writer for The Wall Street Journal Europe.

[dennisw]

 

 

 

Commentary  November 29, 2001

Why Europe Hates Israel

By Bret Stephens, an editorial page writer for The Wall Street Journal Europe.

BRUSSELS -- Yesterday, a Belgian court heard arguments from
lawyers representing 23 Palestinians, survivors of the 1982 Sabra and
Chatilla massacres near Beirut, that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon should be prosecuted in Belgium for crimes against humanity.
Though Mr. Sharon almost certainly will never sit in a Belgian jail,
the trial could hardly be freighted with more significance.

More than a half-century after the Holocaust, a Europe awakened to
the importance of human rights is looking to sanction the leader of
the world's only Jewish state for a crime that was actually committed
by a Christian Lebanese militiaman, later employed by the Syrian
regime of Hafez Assad. And yet blame for the massacres seems to be
apportioned to Mr. Sharon alone. Why?

Sensational Indictment

The short answer is the Belgian legal system, whose well-meaning
laws lend themselves to this sort of opportunistic and sensational
indictment. A slightly longer answer is that many Europeans are
sincerely convinced that Mr. Sharon really is a war criminal, as a
BBC documentary attempted to show last summer.

                               But the real answer is that
                               European governments today are,
                               by and large, tacit enemies of the
                               state of Israel, much as they
                               might protest that they merely
                               take a more "evenhanded"
                               approach to the Arab-Israeli
                               conflict.

                               Consider a few recent examples.
                               In April, France voted to censure
                               Israel at the U.N. Human Rights
                               Commission in Geneva -- while
abstaining from a vote of censure against China. During his
diplomatic foray to Tehran in September, British Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw offered that "one of the factors which helps breed
terrorism is the anger which many people in this region feel at events
over the years in Palestine." The European Union has so far refused
to follow America's lead by freezing the assets of terrorist groups such
as Hezbollah and Hamas, with the European Commission's external
relations spokesman, Gunnar Wiegand, arguing that "Hezbollah could
play a major role in regional stability."

That Europe today should be hostile to Israel may seem a bit of a
mystery, not least given the usual sympathy of aims between
democratic states. The explanation comes in several parts. First, as
historian Howard Sacher points out, Europe's left sees in Israel's
political evolution a betrayal of its utopian ideals. It's easy to forget
that in the years following the establishment of Israel, many
Europeans looked to it as a model socialist country. They admired its
largely state-run economy and especially its collectivist kibbutzim.
Hundreds of young European leftists, most of them non-Jews, flocked
to these farms in the 1960s, looking for the kind of workers' paradise
they could not find on the other side of the Berlin Wall.

This fondness, however, evaporated after the 1967 war, when Israel
went from being the Middle East's underdog to its Goliath, holding a
colonial-like mandate over the lands that came into its possession.
Partly under the sway of Soviet propaganda, partly in keeping with
the fashion of radical chic, European leftists abruptly transferred their
allegiances to the Palestinians and the PLO, which in the 1970s drew
the likes of current German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer to their
meetings. Meanwhile, successive Israeli governments veered to the
right. "The era when Yitzhak Rabin or Golda Meir could address their
European counterparts as 'comrades' at gatherings of the Socialist
International had passed," says Mr. Sacher.

There was also a shift of attitudes on the European right. With the
exception of Britain, whose notoriously Arabist Foreign Office has
dominated its Mideast policy under both Conservative and Labour
governments, much of the Continental right had at one time looked
on admiringly at "plucky little Israel." Thus, beginning in 1952, the
conservative German government of Konrad Adenauer provided Israel
with critical financial support in the form of Holocaust reparations,
while Charles de Gaulle's France helped to build its nuclear reactor at
Dimona.

But it was also de Gaulle who, in 1967, slapped an arms embargo on
Israel for firing the first shot in the Six Day War. Thereafter, the
hostility increased, partly because France fancied itself a champion of
its former Arab colonies, partly out of simple anti-Americanism. But
the chief reason, of course, was Europe's dependence on Arab oil. As
French President Georges Pompidou put it to Henry Kissinger during
the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, "You only rely on the Arabs for about a
tenth of your consumption. We are entirely dependent on them."

Since then, Europe's reliance on Mideastern oil has abated, but the
habit of reflexively seeking to appease the Arabs at Israel's expense
has not. In 1974, French Foreign Minister Michel Jobert toured the
Middle East, seeking to earn price concessions on oil for France by
mouthing a hard anti-Israel line. In 1980, the European Community
formally recognized the PLO despite the fact that Yasser Arafat had
neither made peace with Israel nor dropped his overt sponsorship of
terrorism. Currently, the EU supplies the Palestinian Authority with
the bulk of its foreign aid, even as much of that money goes
indirectly to funding textbooks describing Jews as monkeys and
vermin.

Given all this, many Jews have been led to conclude that what's at
work here is a thinly veiled form of anti-Semitism. But while there
might be some truth to this, it's easily exaggerated. Mr. Straw, of
German-Jewish descent, is clearly no anti-Semite, and the one bright
spot of Jacques Chirac's presidency has been his efforts to
acknowledge the sins of France's suppressed Vichy past.

Underlying Guilt

Underlying European policy is an uneasy sense of guilt. In the
immediate postwar period, Europe's guilty conscience worked in
Israel's favor. But in the postcolonial spirit of the '60s, the balance of
guilt switched to the Arab side: It was they who were being oppressed;
and it was Europe that, with its previous support for Israel, had
helped inflict the oppression. So Europe pressures Israel to withdraw
from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, heedless of the dire security
consequences that such withdrawal would entail. That Israel has so far
refused to accede to this pressure stands as an infuriating rebuke to
modern Europe's fundamental conception of itself as the virtuous
defeated, free to pass judgment while absolved of the moral
responsibilities of wielding actual power.

Whatever the case, a foreign policy based on a combination of
left-wing disillusionment, French opportunism and all-around
cravenness cannot yield good results. With the U.S. State Department
increasingly leaning toward the European line on Israel, it's well that
the basis of that policy be properly understood.

 

 

 

[Lent]

We American taxpayers pay for this too along with payments for Israel's foreign policy which most people don't know about. Without America...

What a pathetic comment. Israel re-invests a few billion and makes something of it. Instead of praising that you have some snide putrid comment. You would be happy if it went into some sinkhole or rats nest like the Palestinian Authority.

Here's a few innovations and inventions which Israel has done - that little country the size of New Jersey and surrounded by your Arab Muslim losers:

Israel Flora, Fauna Database On Internet

(DFJ-MarApr01) A unique database of Israeli flora and fauna has been developed as an Internet site by a team of researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem headed by Dr. Ronen Kadmon, chairman of the Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology.
More

Unique Bandage Saves Lives Of Terror, Accident Victims

(DFJ-MarApr01) Victims of severe injuries in terror attacks, road accidents, earthquakes, and military battles may have an increased margin of survival, thanks to a unique pressure dressing to stop bleeding developed by a researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
More

Israeli-Developed Computer Program Saves Lives

(DFJ-MarApr01) A unique Israeli-developed computer program has saved lives, improved quality assurance, and caused a major reduction in medical negligence. The computer program - Intelligent Patient Record for Obstetrics (IPROB) has been sold to hospitals in the USA. It could revolutionize the practice of medicine and significantly lower hospital costs.
More

Persimmons Can Prevent Clogged Arteries

(DFJ-MarApr01) An apple a day is not bad advice - but a persimmon a day is more worthwhile, especially for your heart. Take it from a group of researchers headed by Dr. Shela Gorinstein, a researcher in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Pharmacy.
More

Berry Boosts Immune System

(DFJ-MarApr01) A study conducted at Hadassah-University Hospital in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem has confirmed that the black elderberry boosts immune system activity and is beneficial in immune deficiency diseases such as cancer and AIDS.
More

Vitamin Rich Tomatoes Developed

(DFJ-Jan/Feb 01) Carotenoids are natural pigments, which are responsible for many of the yellow, orange and red colors seen in living organisms. In leaves, carotenoids perform essential functions in photosynthesis and protection against photodynamic damage to the cells.
More

Bugs Against Bugs - Natural Pest Control

(DFJ-Jan/Feb 01) A new method for biological control of a pest that destroys pepper crops has been developed by researchers in the Department of Entomology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences in Rehovot.
More

High Resolution Image Satellite Launched

(DFJ-Jan/Feb 01) ImageSat International has successfully launched from Siberia the first of eight lightweight, high-resolution imaging satellites that it plans to put into orbit.
More

Intel's New Pentium 4 From Israel

(DFJ-Jan/Feb 01) Kiryat Gat - Intel Corp. recently introduced the Pentium 4 microprocessor, heralded as the fastest chip available for personal computers.
More

Jellyfish Antidote Developed

(Disp.NovDec-00) An Israeli scientist-turned-businessman believes he's invented the world's first way of protecting bathers against the sting of jellyfish. And he hopes to turn it into an international business, with a market of tens of millions.
More

• Mother's Milk Contains Insulin
• Greening The Desert With Bio-engineeredTrees
• Sunglasses For The Skin
• Controlled Flowering Of Plants
• Olive Oil To Be Used In Cosmetics
• Better Melon Yield In Negev
• Replacing Injections for Diabetics
• "Bionic Man" Hears Again
• Another Approach to AIDS
• New Device Could Help Detect Strokes Earlier
• Laser Bonds Surgical Cuts
• Dead Sea Magnesium Cars
• Living With Cancer?
• New Device For Sealed Rooms
• Painless Sugar Test For Diabetics

[Lent]

As you know the recent contract for building an order for aircraft in Israel will put billions of dollars into Texas. Your lunatic pseudo-America-first policy would by philosophical principle mean that the U.S. would cease to help ANY country including allies. Yours is the foreign policy of drug addicts and losers. "A Republic not an Empire" hahaha.

[MadIvan]

I'm not saying all are from us. However, if what you claim Israel has created, and I believe your list, then why are we paying so much money for Israel?

Very simple really. Israel turns around a lot of that money and uses it to buy American weapons, including your most advanced and expensive fighter jets. It is a subsidy to your defence industry that helps out an ally.

Or perhaps you'd like to ask the lads down at Lockheed Martin how they'd feel without orders from Israel? (Be prepared for a "Home Alone" screaming moment)

Regards, Ivan

[Patria One]

So US taxpayers give the money to the government who gives it to Israel who in turn gives it back to US defense contractors.

[MadIvan]

So US taxpayers give the money to the government who gives it to Israel who in turn gives it back to US defense contractors.

It's a deal - Israel gets weapons to shoot terrorists in the head, Americans get jobs building those weapons and maintaining them, and the Dow Jones goes up.

Regards, Ivan

[AGAviator]

Above website says 103 dead...Not the 400 you claim

103 Murdered

351 Wounded - Attempted Murder

454 Total Killed and Wounded

So Israel tries to murder more than 454. They "only" succeed in murdering 103.

Yet suicide bombers "only" kill two or three Israelis and that makes all Palestinians supposed to be evil incarnate.

[Patria One]

Thanks. Sounds like cost shifting but no real profits.

[Caipirabob]

...creating divits should be a capital crime.

Funny, that's the same thing my boss said when he handed me my new mop the following Monday...

[MadIvan]

Depends on your definition of profitable. If Israel wipes out some terrorists, that is definitely a gain.

Regards, Ivan

[Alouette]

When I got to this picture is when I just started bawling.

[AGAviator]

Conditions and attitudes in Europe's dead and decadent primitive and squalid little socialist shithole states incite and encourage, enable, incubate and facilitate these pre-medieval scum -- and send them on their way

Maybe we should send the Israelis back there, then, to make Europe soooo much more better than it is.

Then it would be a win-win for everybody.

[beowolf]

Your pretend(real?) ignorance is amusing. Israel gets 1.86 billion in foreign aid for military purposes that MUST be spent on American arms. Egypt gets 1.30 billion that MUST be spent on American arms.

It also cost the US 50 billion per year in direct military costs to ensure 15 billion per year in oil imports from Saudi Arabia/Kuwait.

Which is the real money loser?

[Brian Allen]

Conditions and attitudes in Europe's dead and decadent primitive and squalid little socialist shithole states incite and encourage, enable, incubate and facilitate these pre-medieval scum -- and send them on their way.

Maybe we should send the Israelis there, then, to make Europe soooo much more better than it is.

Then it would be a win-win for everybody.

No it would not, for then every square millimetre of Arabia, North Africa and the mid-East would become an open sewer -- and the scumbag Europeans would simply pick up where they were at when we went and saved them from themselves in 1939-45 [Just before -- at the cost of the squandering of Fifteen Trillion Dollars of the confiscated wealth of America's (Of the world's, that is) most creative, innovative and productive Citizens -- we saved them from themselves every year since 1945!] -- and slaughter one another; the Jewish People particularly; in bloody abatoirs set up for just that purpose -- and wouldn't have to -- gutless Fat-Rat-Bastard-Arafat-style -- send their obscene emissaries over here to do their murdering for them.

[God_isa_Jew]

"Why Europe Hates Israel"

................Simply put, Europe is dominated politically by the same Vatican that aligned itself closely with The Third Reich. To understand european antisemetism, one has remember that 'the city set on seven hills' has historically contributed much to that work of darkness.

Catholicism, in its bogus claim to be the 'inheritors' of God's promises to the descendants of Abraham, is doctrinally opposed to the restoration of a Jewish State.

If the Bible means what is says throughout the Old and New Testament, God is not done with His plans for The Chosen People. And the guy with the 'fish-god hat on his head' is more the modern day high-priest of the pagan deity 'Dagon' than 'The Vicar of Christ'.

Jesus of Nazareth wept over Jerusalem, understanding that the religious leaders of his day were far more concerned with social status and political influence than repentance. His tears were shed knowing the suffering that would come upon his people as the result of their obstinance. His words to his fellow Jews were, "you shall not see me again until you say, 'blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord'.................Meaning that He would return as the Messianic King of Israel in fulfillment of a major theme of prophetic scripture.

The attitude of the Vatican is completely opposed to God's plan for the world. Rather than the King of the Jews reigning from Jerusalem they wish to install their own 'anointed' King of Jerusalem, Juan Carlos of Spain..........(welcome to the european faction of the emerging NWO)

[Woodkirk]

The European disdain for Israel also derives from the philosophical writings of Augustine and others who contended that Rome was the eternal city, the City of God -- replacing Jerusalem -- and that God was finished with Israel as a nation -- and that only those in the Church of Rome are the chosen people of God. Along came the myth of British Israelism -- the myth that the throne of David, which God promised to establish in Jerusalem, had instead been surreptitiously transferred to London. The EU is executing plans to become leader of a world empire but the U.S. and Israel are in the way, as is the King of Israel who has not forgotten his promises recorded in the scriptures and will one day rule the world from Jerusalem..

[Patria One]

US 50 billion per year in direct military costs don't go to the Saudis. They go to American troops. Everybody has got to be somewhere and if the ME didn't have any belligerents in the region, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem. After all, for many, many years it wasn't.

[Patria One]

"Along came the myth of British Israelism -- the myth that the throne of David, which God promised to establish in Jerusalem, had instead been surreptitiously transferred to London. The EU is executing plans to become leader of a world empire"

I Never heard of that. You mean they think the throne of David is in London?

[God_isa_Jew]

"Wouldn't you think that after having such a horrible time of it in Europe for 1500 years that the refugees to Palestine would have made peace with he Palestinians early on? "

Is there ONE SHREAD of historical proof that your emotional rendering of history has any basis whatsoever in fact? Your analysis sounds much like the a continuation of the litany of delusive propaganda which originates in the Islamic world. Islam, being a religion which maintains deliberate LYING, subversion and murder for the sake of expanding global Muslim domination, cannot be trusted on its face.

[beowolf]

US 50 billion per year in direct military costs don't go to the Saudis. They go to American troops. Everybody has got to be somewhere and if the ME didn't have any belligerents in the region, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem.

Instead of answering the question...you posit that the US military has to be somewhere so the costs are irrelevent. Then you state, by inference, that 'belligerents' are responsible.

Let's clarify the equation, shall we? The 'belligerents' that you are refering to are arab nations, right? It was Iraq that we fought the Desert Storm with wasn't it... to protect the tribes of Saud and Saba (both despotic monarchies) that, now, are proving to be non-allies?