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Why Europe Remains Unwilling to Walk in Israel's Shoes

(Ha'aretz) Shimon Stein - The fundamental disagreements between Israel and the EU regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are linked to the lesson taken by European states from the profound trauma of World War II. The preference for multilateral frameworks, the adherence to the principles of international law, the rejection of the use of force to change political realities, the sanctification of human rights as an absolute value (that is sometimes applied in a manner that leaves a sense of double standards), and empathy toward those who are perceived as being weak - all these are part of the principles by which the EU states conduct themselves. The threat of terror, which has become an inseparable part of Israel's reality, and Israel's responses - which are covered obsessively - bumps up against a European reality that with a few exceptions has not experienced the horrors of terror. It follows from this that Israel's responses to terror, which result in unintended harm to civilians, are met by a lack of understanding. The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to Germany.
2010-01-06 07:47:12
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