Delftsman

European Attitudes

David Kasper of Davids Medienkritik sent me a link to an interview with Keffery Gedman, who presents a very enlightening view of attitudes in the EU towards the US and Israel.

Here is just a taste:

Jeffrey Gedmin, an American, is director of the Aspen Institute in Berlin. According to Gedmin, four factors play a role in Europe's increasingly anti-Israeli sentiment: Europe's attempt to assuage guilt over its murderous past, rivalry with the United States, anti-Semitism, and the nonacceptance of European concepts of society by the majority of Israelis.

Gedmin forecasts that with the greater divergence in views between the United States and Europe, the disagreement over Israel will increasingly widen. He says, "During the forty years of the Cold War, we Americans had a close relationship with Europe, even if it was not without problems. After the Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989, Europe, and in particular Germany, gradually woke up, thinking that they needed America less. Thus began a path to greater competition and rivalry, some of it benign, some less so.

"Dependency on America during the Cold War has bred terrible European resentment. Americans have underestimated how deep that runs. Yet the imbalance in power between the United States and Europe remains and this breeds even more European frustration and envy. Europe is still lacking in economic growth and dynamism, self-confidence and demography."

Go and read the rest.

Posted by Delftsman3 at December 17, 2004 04:00 PM