Re: NYTimes.com Article: Europe's Chance in the Mideast

At 4:41 PM -0400 16/7/01, Boris Stremlin wrote:
>This article does, however, put in question Wallerstein's claim (made in
>an FBC commentary just a few days ago) that the reason the Palestinians
>don't get the same kind of worldwide support as the blacks in South Africa
>received has to do with the lingering Western guilt about the Holocaust.
>If that were the only reason, the Europeans would tread more softly around
>Israel than does the US.  The present reality suggests that the case is
>quite different - lack of sympathy for the Palestinians has more to do
>with US power and Israel's role as a US client than with residual guilt
>about the treatment of Jews.

Surely one can't generalise in this fashion about "the Europeans"? I 
think official French position might take a tougher line; not so 
clear with the Brits, and surely the Germans tread softly.

There's also the business of -- and I think it's justifiable to 
generalise? -- the EuroAmerican view of Arabs and Islam.

Finally, there's that little matter of media coverage. Robert Fisk is 
that rare journalist given top billing in a EuroAmerican paper, 
although how anyone on the ground could take any other view I can't 
quite understand. I recall how in 1983, the BBC TV correspondent got 
more and more agitated by the day as he covered the invasion of 
Lebanon.

kj khoo