Glenn Reynolds has responded to this post, and explicitly stated that he doesn’t believe that American liberals or Democrats are treasonous. As I mentioned below, I’ll resist a few opportunities for point-scoring and just accept that. (The one point I’d really like to make is laid out here at Finnegan’s Wake.)
However, he still believes that it’s appropriate and accurate to argue that European leftists are supporting terrorists in the hopes of destroying the United States. More specifically, he believes that Europeans (especially the French) are fighting a “proxy war” with Americans in the Middle East
While I don’t take this charge quite as personally (“Oh, you mean the other Timberites? Well then, never mind”), I don’t think that the argument has improved tremendously. Let’s look at the evidence that Reynolds brings to the table. (This sounds like an attackblogging post, but it really isn’t. It’s about Israel and Palestine, so I’ll have the flame retardant up.)
The origin of the charge comes from a speech from a 25-year-old German Green ex-member of the EU Parliament, Ilka Schroeder. Schroeder has been traveling and making a speech in which she makes two very serious claims:
– The Palestinian Authority has funneled financial support from the European Union into terrorist attacks on Israel.
– This diversion of funds is no secret; it’s congruent with the policy of the European Union. In order to increase European influence in the Middle East, the EU is funding a “proxy/ hidden war” in which Palestinians and Israelis fight in the place of Europeans and Americans.
The need for a solution only exists as long as the war continues. This is why the EU does not want the conflict to end before it gains a major role. And this is why the EU does not wish the PA to give up too early and why the EU is strengthening the PA. The EU is getting up to the cynicism of stirring up a conflict that it supposedly wants to see resolved by financing one side. This is the inherently inhuman purpose of EU humanitarian aid in the region. The Palestinians are playing the ugly role of being the cannon fodder for Europe’s hidden war against the US. It can be noted on the side that this is not considered an anti-Arab policy by those who otherwise easily use this word.
– This policy is motivated largely by anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.
“There is no difference in the consciousness of an average member of the European Parliament and an average German peace demonstrator, and I consider this to be a mixture of naivete, moralism, anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism and an altogether serious danger,” she said during her U.S. speaking tour. “It is against these trends that my efforts are directed.”
You can read her stump speech here and here(as a .pdf).
Due largely to Schroeder’s pressure, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) began an investigation into claims that EU funds to the PA were diverted from their intended use. Apparently, the German magazine Die Welt ran a story in February 2004 claiming that a secret report showed rampant abuses in early 2004, but this doesn’t seem to be reflected in the official interim report. They released an interim report in August 2004 saying that they had found “no evidence that funds from the non-targeted EU Direct Budget Assistance to the Palestinian Authority have been used to finance illegal activities, including terrorism.” The investigation is still ongoing.
The OLAF investigation may still find evidence that the PA was, in fact, using EU aid to finance terrorism. I’ll be angry and disappointed if this is the case, but not shocked.
http://www.instapundit.com/archives/013211.php (funding terrorists)
http://instapundit.com/archives/013314.php (already admitted)