I fear I must beg the indulgence of the congregation on this post, owing to the fact that I have not had the time to comprehensively digest the large volume of mail that had accumulated by this morning; I may therefore be going over old ground somewhat.
Regarding the Israel/Palestine issue one of the reasons I find it difficult to comment is simply a lack of certainty regarding the information available; reading the respective US and European accounts of the conflict one could easily be reading of two completely differing conflicts. Both seem to be strongly culturally informed (bias and subjectivity are unavoidable parts of our existential situation, as should be borne in mind when referring to Catholic Republicans as bearers of truth and honesty).
Consider the following. The European account of the conflict is roughly as follows; there is an instinctive siding with the underdog. Regarding the conflict as a post-colonial issue, Israel is viewed as a colonial power seeking to displace the native population, either expelling them from their homes or imposing apartheid through military power. Conversely, Americans seem reluctant to admit this aspect; the euphemistically termed 'settlements' (or colonies as they should be called) are viewed as an embarrassing stain on Israel's record rather than as being central to the Zionist project. The absurdity of Zionist religious claims on a piece of land is something Europeans seem keenly aware of, as with the role of Christian fundamentalism (the account of the Bible requires a jewish state of Israel to exist for the prophecies of the book of revelations to come to pass).
Equally, the concept of International law is something most European states are extremely sensitive to, but treated with indifference and contempt by most Americans. Accordingly, Europe is much more aware that Israel has had far more UN declarations against it than Iraq and would have had double that number if the US had not vetoed them. They are also aware that the Balfour declaration gave Israel no right to a homeland that displaced the Palestinian people.
Conversely, the American perspective has rarely had a great deal of respect for the underdog who are viewed as 'losers.' Instead, respect is accorded to a group that has constructed an economically successful, liberal democratic and largely secular state under very difficult conditions, where most of the Arab states in the area have succeeded in constructing impoverished dictatorships. European hopes of a secular, democratic state of Palestine are treated with extreme suspicion; if such a state were to exist in the Arab world it would be a novelty to say the least.
Even as news sources like the BBC report that about half of the Palestinian populace see the end-goal of their struggle as being the destruction of Israel, not a two state solution respecting the 1967 borders, Europeans seem to find this difficult to admit; when the Israelis view Palestine as a threat to their very existence, they do not not seem to be scaremongering. Americans seem rather much alive to the role of Islamic fundamentalism in the conflict; most Europeans seem to find it difficult to think of religion as propounding conflict and violence and keep on thinking of tea with the vicar and cucumber sandwiches. Of course, the favourite observation on this topic is the number of Jewish voters influencing US policy; to which replies concerning the high numbers of Muslim votes in Europe may be returned.
---- This message was posted by kharin to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25956>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sun Sep 22 2002 - 05:06:18 MDT