European Hypocrisy

Tony Karon, a good friend of mine, is a South African who was part of the anti-apartheid movement before moving to America and becoming editor in chief of Time.com. He also writes regularly on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and Middle East politics in general. His personal blog, Rootless Cosmopolitan, is one of the best places to go for analysis of Middle East issues in particular, and global politics in general. And he is one of the few people that are as rabid as I am in supporting Liverpool FC!

A few weeks ago I wrote an article for his blog on European policy in the Middle East. Make sure you check out the rest of Tony’s excellent site for some really fascinating writing and excellent insight.

Excerpt:

“The tragic aspect of Europe’s policy with regard to Palestine today is not just that is practically indistinguishable from the policy of the US, but that it comes bundled with great self-righteousness and an unshakable belief that it is not only the correct policy, but is also vastly morally superior to anything anyone else is doing. The financial aid provided by Europe is the major rationale supporting this smugness.

“Here is a small microcosm of how this madness works: A Palestinian town has a wall built surrounding it from all sides, making it impossible for previously prosperous farmers to access their land, patients to reach their doctors and children to reach their schools. Naturally, the town is devastated. That’s when Europeans send in their conscience-assuaging, smugness-propping aid “experts” to “save” the town, in the process relieving Israel from having to deal with the consequences of its crimes. They provide the farmers with food instead of the food they could have produced themselves, and proceed with projects to teach Palestinians “alternative industries”, “new business models”, “good local governance”, “participatory development”, “creative educational techniques” and countless other meaningless prattle that the Palestinians would gladly give up for having the wall removed, an independent state and some sense of normalcy bestowed on their lives. Naturally, these projects have a short shelf-life; the funding soon dries up, the “experts” leave, but the apartheid wall remains, the livelihood of a whole town is devastated, and the mirage of Palestinian independence is even more distant.”

Read the rest of it here