actually line up to drink sputum and spittle from the mouth of Arafat.
Posted on 04/21/2002 12:27:56 PM PDT by LarryLied
European Union External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten accused Israel on Sunday of hijacking the U.S.-led war on terror and said its use of force against Palestinians would prove counter-productive.
Patten told BBC Television's Breakfast with Frost program that Israel had effectively destroyed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority during its re-occupation of West Bank towns and refugee camps.
IDF tanks and troops withdrew Sunday from most of two West Bank cities, Ramallah and Nablus, three weeks after it launched Operation Defensive Shield in response to a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings that killed scores of Israelis, but it has kept Arafat confined to his headquarters in Ramallah.
"One of the real tragedies of this is that the Israeli government hijacked the campaign against terrorism and they have given some people the excuse for disengaging from that campaign," Patten said.
"It's going to be much more difficult to deal with [Iraqi leader] Saddam Hussein while that crisis continues," he added.
Israeli politicians have frequently said they are waging a conflict similar to Washington's war on terrorism following the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities.
"I think it's what we call, in good English, a chutzpah, [having the nerve] to say that we hijacked the war on terror. We didn't volunteer to wage a war for fun," Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh said in response to Patten's comments.
"Terror didn't start in the World Trade Center or in the Pentagon on September 11. The suicide bombing started in Tel Aviv six years ago, seven years ago, and the very permissive attitude of the world to this phenomenon brought them to the heart of Manhattan," he told reporters.
Sneh said that Patten's comments caused "grave damage" to the EU as a possible broker in the Middle East conflict. The EU has strongly criticized Israel's offensive against Palestinians in the West Bank, while Arab states especially accuse the United States of favoring Israel.
Patten said the Israeli attacks were targeting the Palestinians' self-rule infrastructure, not the militants.
"They destroyed the ministry of education, they've destroyed the ministry of finance - that has nothing to do with trying to deal with suicide bombers," Patten said.
"If you don't have a Palestinian Authority the only alternative is Palestinian anarchy. That is why what Sharon has been doing is so fundamentally against the long term interests of Israel."
EUROPEAN UNION Commissioner Chris Patten yesterday attacked the US for projecting its military power in a way that was “profoundly misguided.” He added the Afghanistan campaign reinforced some “dangerous instincts” including that the US could rely on “no one but itself.”
Today Richard Perle, former Deputy US Defence Secretary and a close adviser to President Bush, describes why the US must lead the war on terror.
"IT is patronising of Mr Chris Patten to emphasise how much he loves and admires America and then to embark on a foreign policy prescription that would leave us vulnerable to terrorism.The European Union could not defend the United States from Iraq’s Saddam Hussein — nor could it bring about the change of regime in Iraq that we are all hoping for.Mr Patten misinterprets the President and misunderstands his responsibility to defend the American people.His suggestion that this can be accomplished by multi-lateral organisations like the United Nations and the European Union is laughable. They could not even prevent the expulsion from Iraq of the UN’s weapons inspectors.Indeed the United Nations has behaved in relation to Iraq exactly as its impotent predecessor, the League of Nations, did in respect of Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s.
In his article, Mr Patten admits: “Europe cannot hope to match US military spending — nor should it even aspire to do so.” But he says he “feels strongly that European governments should increase their national military budgets, shouldering more of the burden for their own defence.”If he is expressing those strong feelings to his European colleagues, they are having no effect. Far from going up, the defence budgets of almost all European states are going DOWN. Mr Patten goes on to say: “The European Union symbolises the unity of countries who come together to tackle common problems.”That’s fine ... except that every time Europe gets into trouble, it phones the United States for help.Europe is so weak and in disarray on so many security issues, it cannot do anything without American assistance.
What Mr Patten fails to appreciate is that the President is speaking overwhelmingly for the American people.He reflects the views of those who elected him to keep the country safe. Mr Patten has not been elected to public office since 1987 and is responsible to no one.His worrying views are echoed in some of the capitals of Europe. It seems the moral compass of the European Union gone the way of the euro — steadily down.When the President talks about the “Axis of Evil”, he is describing some of the nastiest regimes of the 20th and 21st centuries.
If Mr Patten is upset by the word “evil”, how would he describe them? And what would he do about them?He seems prepared to do nothing except to countenance their continuing evil.
By contrast the President has in mind something effective to deal with the genuine threat posed to the United States. It may not be the same thing in each case. When he talks about Iran, he is associating himself with the democratic aspirations of Iran. That is something which is very difficult to do if you go to Teheran to kiss the behinds of the mullahs as Foreign Secretary Jack Straw did and Mr Patten would like to do. Mr Straw made a fool of himself by talking about the “common values” shared by Iran and Britain. This is a regime which has spread the instruments of terror wherever they can take root.
People should understand that President Bush is not talking simply for effect. This is a man who is extremely careful with his words and very sensitive about avoiding empty rhetoric. He is probably the most determined leader this country has had in the post war period.Unlike wets like Chris Patten, he is not prepared to follow conventional wisdom and find elaborate excuses for nasty regimes which others are afraid to confront. The EU Commissioner represents an institution which has no capacity to protect us if we do not protect ourselves.
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