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

On Wed, 18 Jul 2001 kjkhoo@pop.jaring.my wrote:

[...]

> >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.

This is true, though the article did explicitly say that the attitudes
toward Israel have begun to chill in "London, Paris and Berlin" (though it
did not provide any specific examples on Germany).  

Whether "Europe" can project an attitude (common or not) as _policy_ is a
different question (this issue was brought up in today's NYT letters
column by a member of the ADL responding to the original article.  Of
course, as a supporter of Israel, he doesn't wish to see the US
supplanted, but he does have a point.

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

Absolutely.  This issue came up in some offlist discussions I had about my
post, and I agree that it is also highly significant in shapeing attitudes
about the mideast conflict.

> 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
> 

-- 
Boris Stremlin
bstremli@binghamton.edu