LIGHT TO THE NATIONS

The decline and fall of the European empire (Amotz Asa-El, Jerusalem Post, June 9th, 2005)

Surely, it would be futile to attribute the European Union's demise to one individual, even if he be the leader of the main country in the constitution saga.

By ceasing to reproduce, shunning hard work, indulging in luxuries and luring migrant workers only to consign them to the bottom of the social ladder, millions of people across the continent individually contributed to its degeneration. Just how they now think all this lethargy can produce a superpower that will rival America is difficult to understand. What's clear is that Europe, the very continent that gave rise to the Industrial Revolution and the Protestant work ethic, is gradually turning its back on basic work values while others, from Mexico to China, adopt them with enthusiasm.

Unless a new leadership emerges across Europe, one that will care less about rivaling America and more about restoring such basic values as working hard and raising children, future scholars will have to seek explanations for the Old Continent's decline. They may suggest that Europe emerged exhausted from its two world wars. They may argue that it could not cope with its loss of global prominence. They may suggest that it wasn't that Europe declined, but that other powers rose.

Some, at the same time, may also notice that the centuries in which Europe ruled the world were also the only time in history when most of the Jewish people lived there. They may also notice that Europe's decline began just after Europe killed most of its Jews. And they may also notice that the more Jew-less Europe declined, the more it indulged in bashing, and pandering to the enemies of, the Jewish state - a place where former Europeans still uphold the old-fashioned values of freedom, work and family, a place from which Europe's bankruptcy seems not only political, economic, and historic, but also moral.