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February 10, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
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February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
February 16, 2010/ 2 Adar 5770
Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief.
By
Marty Peretz
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Europe is a mess. Greece is the country on the continent closest to utter wreck. (And, if not for statements by Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy, there would literally be no hope for a life raft anywhere near Athens soon. The FT smothers even those wan hopes.) Spain, Portugal and Ireland are not far behind … or under.
Each of these countries has views on how Israel deals with the Palestinians, and they don't like it at all. Neither do the past and present "foreign ministers"—so to speak, but not exactly—of the European Union. The previous one also a past foreign minister of Spain, Javier Solana, whose main claim to distinction is that he is the grand nephew of Salvador de Madariaga, historian, politician and chief of the ill-fated League of Nations mission for world disarmament. It's a shame, neither Hitler nor Mussolini (nor Tojo) wanted to cooperate. So Solana's blood runs thick with hope and thin with achievement. He did spend his six years as a physics graduate student at the University of Virginia, with a good deal of his energy there siphoned off to march against the Vietnam war. Ho! Ho! Ho Chi Minh! Ha. Ha.
Solana's successor, the Baroness Ashton of Upholland (neé Catherine Ashton), was Labor leader of the House of Lords, testimony to the diminishing stature of the peers. In the eighties, she was treasurer of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND); this was long after nutty but brilliant Bertie Russell was dead but in the midst of the deepest financial machinations of the Soviet Union in the atomic or anti-American atomic effort. Of course, she didn't know about that—although it is estimated that nearly 40 percent of the campaign's money came from Moscow. And, if she didn't know that, she is capable of knowing nothing.
As Solana had, so has Ashton developed a certain reflexive patter about the Arab-Jewish conflict. She wants Israel to stop its "blockade" of Gaza, as if there were hunger and disease in the Strip. This is simply not so. In very harsh language, Lady Ashton has drawn her own boundaries around "legitimate" Israel, boundaries that ignore more than 40 years of history when nature and politics did not bow to the intransigence of the Palestinian polity, such as it is and such as it is not.
Frankly, I cannot grasp what gives the Union the idea that it is a force in the long dispute between Israel and the hapless Palestinians. The fact is that no one has any sway with the Palestinians. The Palestinians are holding out for the most when they'll be fortunate to get a little. This must be apparent to the Europeans. So they are playing games when they demand "this" and "that" and "some more" from Israel. They have played out their trustworthiness to the Jews, and, when I say "they," I do not mean all of the Europeans. Not at all. Great Britain is still, in the end, a friend … and France, as well. Germany, to be sure. The Netherlands and Denmark also. And, of course, the new striving (and precarious) democracies of Eastern Europe which know the difference between civilization and jihadism, having fought against the other jihad of communism. I'd choose the Czech Republic over socialist Spain in a moment.
One of Spain's self-designated roles in Europe is to hector the rest of the Union to be tough on Israel. After all, it brought itself troubles by looking away from the millions of Middle Eastern, North African and even Pakistani immigrants, legal and illegal, who are now much discontented and who Madrid assumes—altogether without evidence—can be conciliated by an anti-Israel foreign policy. (See Robert Leiken's Foreign Affairs article, "Europe's Angry Muslims.") Here is a country that has two discontented but indigenous minoritiesthe Basques and the great Cataloniansand it permitted itself waves of new minorities from a culturally remote world to set up tent almost anywhere and everywhere in Spain. While lecturing Israel about the Palestinians, Spain has still not really settled its troubles with Morocco. And, similarly, Portugal, which also has views about Israel and the Palestinians, still owns a living colonialist legacy in southern Africa.
Ireland is a case unto itself. But it has nasty similarities.
Which brings us to the most relentlessly anti-Israel country in Europe, Sweden. I'll be brief. In mid-summer 2009, Sweden moved in the European Union to pass a resolution recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. No negotiations, no nothing. In fact, this recognition of a capital went altogether without a state.It was just a gesture and a mischievous gesture, at that. Would it just be the main city of the West Bank, the boundaries of which are nowhere near settled? Or would Gaza also be governed from Al Quds? So the Swedish initiative was not only mischievous but frivolous. Finally, most of Europe saw the nonsense in the plan. And defeated it.
And let me just go back to pathetic Greece, which lied to itself about its own finances and now is pleading for the rest of Europe to pick up the bill. Now that Turkey is moving eastward with the Islamic winds, Athens may well find that Israel might be a good friend to have, after all. Greece didn't send an ambassador to Israel until the state was 42 years old.
So what, if not for Israel's being its adversary, is the ideological lure of Palestine after all? Does anyone imagine Palestine (or the two Palestines, and maybe even the third Palestine on the other side of the Jordan) as a fair society, let alone an equal society? Will there be justice in its courts? And decent human rights to its women and to those still viewed as criminal sexual deviants? What will be the role of true learning in your imagined Palestine? Of science? Of basic honesty? Of the press? Of the universities and colleges?
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
JWR contributor Martin Peretz is the editor-in-chief of the leading liberal journal of thought, The New Republic.
© 2010, Martin Peretz
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