Superficial soundings?
Is Israel the biggest threat to world peace?
Europeans certainly seem to think so.
There was surprise, outrage, and condemnation this week, when a Eurobarometer poll of EU citizens, sponsored and released by the European Commission, ranked Israel top of the list of states deemed a threat to peace in the world.
It presents a superficial image of a complex phenomenon, said Franco Frattini, Italian foreign minister and no, he wasnt talking about the Diary.
But what does Frattini mean? Does the poll present a superficial image of European opinion? Or do you Europeans have a superficial understanding of complex world affairs that is reflected in their opinions?
Israeli daily Haaretz ran an editorial under the headline Lessons from a superficial poll, which argued, in part, that Europeans, like most of the world, are used to seeing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on TV, not the internal weapons programmes of North Korea or Iran.
Frattini expressed his surprise and disappointment at the distorted signal emerging from the opinion poll which doesnt really make things any clearer.
Whatever, the poll comes as a major embarrassment to Italy, current holder of the EU presidency.
59% of respondents deemed Israel a threat to world peace.
In joint second place, came Iran, North Korea and the United States, with 53% of EU citizens expressing concern.
Iraq got 52% yes votes. Afghanistan 50%. Pakistan 48%. Syria 37%. Saudi Arabia 36%. China 30%.
Oh, and 8% of Europeans think the EU itself is a threat to global harmony.
If it keeps publishing polls like this, it will be.
Frattini kept trying to talk his continent out of a corner. The results of this survey, the fruit of a misleading question, do not reflect the position of the European Union, he said. The Union ... has ... always considered Israel an essential interlocutor and a country characterised by values and institutions founded on the deepest democratic principles.
Just like the EU.
Apparently, those Europeans who see Israel as a threat to world peace tend to be more educated 66% of those who studied beyond the age of 20 and are more likely to be Dutch, Belgian, Austrian or German, than Italian or French.
Younger Europeans are more likely to perceive the United States as a threat.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre was not impressed. The poll is an indication that Europeans have bought in, hook, line and sinker, to the vilification and demonisation campaign directed against the State of Israel and her supporters by European leaders and media, said Rabbi Marvin Hier. These shocking results that Israel is the greatest threat to world peace, bigger than North Korea and Iran, defy logic and are a racist flight of fancy that only shows that anti-Semitism is deeply embedded within European society, more than any other period since the end of World War II. If the results of this survey are as reported, then Israel should draw the only conclusion possible that the European Union and its members should play no role in any future peace process.
Israel is considering hiring a public relations firm to campaign for Israel in Europe.
(Sources: International Herald Tribune, Associated Press)
Its not personal, its business
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of the West? asked New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman this week.
A few days after publishing the threat to world peace poll, the EU slapped a $200 million tariff on US imports, active as of March 2004.
Tom, you can almost feel that Atlantic stretch.
This is EU revenge for US tax breaks for exporters.
EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy was talking tough: The Commission hopes to pass a very clear message to the United States that their continued failure to implement three years after the expiry of the original World Trade Organisation (WTO) deadline is unacceptable.
This time, the US did not respond with a jibe about Benelux aggression.
Actually, the EU is letting the US off lightly. The WTO granted the EU the right to impose 100% tariffs on up to $4billion of US goods. These tariffs add up a mere 5%.
Not quite a trade war, but its got potential.
Said Arancha Gonzalez, spokeswoman for Lamy: This should focus the minds of US legislators.
If theyre not too busy munching freedom fries in the Capitol canteens, that is.
Meanwhile, the EU is considering sanctions on another $2.2 billion of US goods, in retaliation for President Bushs controversial 30% tariffs on imported steel.
The BBC says The list, which includes Harley Davidson motorcycles, citrus fruit, and textile products, is said to have been calculated so as to hit hardest regions which support President Bushs Republican Party.
Interfering with the US presidential election, by any chance?
This protectionism may prove to boomerang on Bush. His distaste for foreign competition has actually raised the prices of steel in the US. Consumers, his electorate, are not happy (Read more).
Sacred constitution
Remember Afghanistan?
A couple of years ago it was the focus of global attention, and we all vowed to never forget it again.
Remember now?
OK, well this week, the land liberated from the Taliban by US air power unveiled a draft constitution. It calls for the creation of an Islamic Republic.
Its a strange thing, geopolitics.
A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said the constitution was designed with the next 100, 200 years in mind.
Whether things will look much different then, is, of course, a matter of opinion.
Under the constitution, no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam.
Talk is optimistic. Former King Mohammed Zaher Shah expressed his hope that the constitution will direct people towards peace, security and democracy.
Wouldnt that be something!
There is, apparently, no mention of sharia law. Rather, the constitution speaks of equal rights for citizens, presidential government, and education for women.
The constitution was a year in the drafting, and future citizens were sent questionnaires asking for their thoughts on what the new republic should look like.
Lessons for Iraq?
State of denial
Speaking of which, the Washington Post revealed this week that Saddam Hussein (you know, the former dictator of Iraq, chap with the moustache) is the leading contender for this years World Diary Bonehead of the Year Award.
Saddam qualifies due to his belief that the US invasion of Iraq was nothing more than a ruse.
Thats right, folks Saddam totally bought French and Russian assurances that they could filibuster the US into submission, and avoid a war.
Oops!
The revelations come courtesy of Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister of Iraq, now under interrogation by US authorities. The Post says that Azizs account, which may or may not be the truth, paint[s] Hussein on the eve of war as a distracted, distrustful despot who was confused, among other things, by his meeting with Russian and French intermediaries.
Maybe the interpreters never showed.
Aziz claims the French and Russians assured Saddam in late 2002 that they would block a US-led war through delays and vetoes at the UN Security Council.
Looks like everyone was in a big-time state of denial.
Apparently, Hussein was so sure of himself ... he refused to order an immediate military response when he heard reports that American ground forces were pouring into Iraq, concluding that the crossing was some sort of feint.
Saddam was convinced the US would launch a sustained air bombardment, but then give up in the face of stiff Iraqi defence, leaving himself a hero (once again).
For those of you who hadnt heard, this isnt how it went down.
Said Major General Amer Shia Jubouri, former division commander of the Iraqi army, in the understatement of the year, He obviously misunderstood the theory of deterrence. You have to know when this theory can be successful, and when it can be disastrous.
You sure do.
Oh, and Aziz also said that Iraq had no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Click here to read the article in full.
Having a laugh
And so to Ethiopia.
Heres to Belachew Girma, the Ethiopian man who this week broke his own unofficial world record for laughing non-stop.
Last weekend, Belachew knelt in Meskel Square, Addis Ababa, said a short prayer, and started to laugh.
This is the kind of reader the Diary needs more of!
The noise just went on and on, said a BBC report, a mixture of loud guffaws cackles and a sprinkling of giggles.
The perfect Diary reader!
Says Belachew, an example to us all: We are living full of stress ... Natural disasters, economical, political, social problems ... My aim is to minimise this stress. Please let us communicate by smiling. Our slogan is laughter, love, peace for all human beings.
Amen, brother!
Belachew laughed for two hours non-stop (sounds appealing? click here!).
Catch the dude in Germany next week, where he seeks to make the record official.
Dont miss!
One Latin American in four is a potential authoritarian.
Find out why at The Economist.
Quotes of the week
Part of the democratic process is assuring that people are going to get a piece of the cake, and that has been lacking in Bolivia.
Marta Lagos, pollster and political analyst from Latinobarimetro. More.
The past belongs to Europe, the present belongs to the United States, and the future belongs to Asia.
President Musharraf of Pakistan on a three-day visit to China this week.
Excuse my frankness; your incessant political manoeuvres and counter-manoeuvres, your brilliant rhetoric, your threats and counter-threats do not impress anyone anymore but instead aggravate everyone.
King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia, ticking off Cambodias political parties.
In a long, hard war we are going to have tragic days, as this is. But they are necessary. They are part of a war that is difficult and complicated.
Necessary? US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld responding to the shooting down of a US Chinook helicopter which killed 15 American soldiers.
I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.
Howard Dean, US Democratic presidential candidate. Later this week, he apologised for the comment.
We thought it would be the holiday of a lifetime, but its not like that at all.
British holidaymaker Paul Brammer, stuck aboard the P&O; Cruise Ship Aurora. In the most bizarre incident of the week, Spain shut its border with Gibraltar to prevent the Auroras passengers bringing into the country a gastrointestinal bug that had struck the cruise-liner. This extraordinary move sparked a diplomatic crisis between Britain and Spain, EU countries supposedly committed to the free movement of peoples within the Union. Passengers waved banners reading HELP US! from the deck of the Aurora.
Contact the Diary Editor: Dominic.Hilton@openDemocracy.net
