The impotent continent
Argument that Middle East peace process must include Europe is delusion
However, the oft-repeated argument that “it won’t work without Europe” is a complete delusion.
- Europe does not have a uniform foreign policy and will not have one for the foreseeable future. The intra-European schism over Iraq demonstrates that it splits in line with traditional and national interests when it comes to taking difficult political and military decisions.
Europe clearly finds it easy to unanimously vote against the security fence at the United Nations, however. Yet this is merely an expression of opinion, not a policy.
Officials in Brussels may think that producing a policy paper is equivalent to adopting a policy, a perception that is utterly foolish.
- Europe does not have the ability to implement and enforce policy. The Europeans certainly dislike to be reminded of their shameful fiasco in Yugoslavia. Indeed, they failed to act while genocide was taking place before their very eyes, with the city of Sarajevo facing a brutal siege right under their noses for about two years.
Europe’s failures did not end there. On the eve of Cyprus joining the European Union, for example, European politicians hoped to unite the island by offering both sides a scheme they could not resist.
Europeans failed in Cyprus, too
In practice, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan’s plan ended in decisive failure. The Europeans may still be angry, but they have failed to come up with an effective solution to the Cyprus problem to date.
Recent events in western Sudan’s Darfur region are even graver. Officially, the Europeans condemned the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Khartoum government, with the assistance of Arab militias, against the black, non-Arab population.
Nonetheless, Europe has done nothing while genocide was again being committed before the world’s eyes, and cameras.
France deploys several thousand soldiers in various African countries and knows how to use them when a friendly African dictatorship is in danger. However, heaven forbid French troops be risked to save close to a million blacks in Sudan.
All those clinging to the “only Europe can do it” pipe dream should recognize European impotence. Some Israelis oppose European involvement in our region because of a perceived anti-Israeli stance, an approach both hypocritical and ineffective.
Continent lacks the power
The actual reason Europe will not get involved in our region is far plainer - it simply cannot.
Europe holds on to noble goals, a distinguished intellectual tradition, and a genuine desire to solve any conflict peacefully, following two wars where America saved the Europeans from themselves. Yet the continent still lacks the power to translate its noble wishes into action.
