Why do so many Europeans reject America's view of the MiddleEast?By Michael Elliott, columnist, Time Magazine (Apr. 29, 2002)As a teenager growing up in Britain, I remember saying prayers atour church for the safety of Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.For my friends and me, Israel's great Defense Minister, the one-eyed Moshe Dayan, was an authentic hero. One night, I remember,the BBC aired a tribute to Dayan using as a sound track the Who'sI Can See for Miles, which we thought was pretty cool. In thelate '60s spending time on a kibbutz was a fashionable way forEuropean teens to bridge the gap between school and university.As far as I could judge as a young man, widespread Europeansympathy for Israel--the sense that Israelis were the good guysin the Middle East--extended through the horrors of the Munichmassacre in 1972 and the October War of 1973.Yet now the streets of Europe are filled with rallies thatsupport the Palestinians and condemn Israel. Listening to a radiobroadcast on BBC World last week, I was struck by an anchor's airof incomprehension at a demonstration in Washington in support ofIsrael: Weren't the Americans, she asked a correspondent, reallyrather "simple" when it came to the realities of the Middle East?Many American Jews, not surprisingly, are furious at the Europeanresponse. For nations responsible for the Holocaust to ignore thehorrors of suicide attacks on Israeli targets, to shut their earsto the hate for Jews that spews from the Arab media, seemsunforgivable. American Jews ask why European peace activists goto Ramallah and Nablus rather than Netanya and Jerusalem. In anessay in the New York Observer, Ron Rosenbaum wrote wrenchinglyof a "dynamic" that "suggests that Europeans are willing...to becomplicit in the murder of Jews again."Why do Americans and Europeans see the tragedy of the Middle Eastin such different ways? In one view, the root cause lies inreactions to the attacks of Sept. 11; Americans have developed adeep hatred of terrorism and identify the Palestinian suicidebomber as a species of the same genus as an al-Qaeda massmurderer. But this tale is deeper and darker than that. In anyevent, all five of the largest West European countries--Germany,Britain, France, Italy and Spain--have good reasons of their ownto detest terrorism.A possible explanation for European support of the Palestiniancause is that Europe's media have long been better than theirU.S. counterparts at covering the misery of Palestinians. I woulddate the growth of European sympathy for the Palestinian cause toIsrael's 1982 incursion into Lebanon, and especially to themassacre by Israel's Lebanese allies of Palestinian refugees inthe camps of Sabra and Shatila--an outrage for which an officialIsraeli inquiry held Ariel Sharon indirectly responsible. Sharon,ever since, has been a hate figure for the European left.Europeans who grew up after 1945 have developed a loathing forthose who seek to prosecute political ends by military means.Sharon's willingness these past weeks to send tanks into refugeecamps--whatever the provocation--touches too many raw nerves.There's more. To an extent that few Americans understand, modernEuropeans have a deep sense of guilt about their colonialadventures. (Indeed, they have much to feel guilty about.) FrantzFanon's The Wretched of the Earth, a chilling catalog of Frenchatrocities in Algeria and a cry to listen to those denied avoice, is one of the post-1945 era's most influential Europeanbooks. All this has had an effect. It was easy for Europeans tobe on the side of Israel when, as in 1967 and 1973, it seemed tobe fighting a defensive war against those who wished to eliminatethe Jewish state. But as Jewish settlements grew in the WestBank, Europeans became uneasy. Israel seemed to be adopting apolicy of colonization that to modern European eyes was not justmorally reprehensible but also bound to end in tears.Clearly, for some Jews these rationalizations are beside thepoint. Europeans, they argue, are just plain anti-Semitic. Theynaturally "portray Jews as the real villains," says Rosenbaum;they always have, always will. Well, I just don't believe thisabout the post-1945 generations of Europeans, though I suspectthat's because I don't want to. But, undeniably, past Europeananti-Semitism has had a bitter effect on present Europeanattitudes. Put at its crudest, most Europeans know very few Jews;they killed too many of them. In America there is a thrivingcommunity for whom the survival of Israel is a passionatecommitment; in Europe there isn't. No number of school lessons orchurch sermons about the Holocaust can overcome that humdrumtruth.So why do Europeans and Americans see the Middle East in suchdifferent ways? Above all, because the shadow and shame of theHolocaust reaches out of the past and lays a cold hand on ourpresent understanding. All the prayers in the world won't makethat grim truth go
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