June 7, 2005
THE ONE WHO LOST:
Spain's ex-PM to Israel: Ignore Europe (Herb Keinon, Jun. 6, 2005, THE JERUSALEM POST)
Israel need not pay much attention to Europe, which is using its Middle East policy to separate itself from the US, has a tendency toward appeasement and is largely pro-Palestinian, former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar told The Jerusalem Post Monday."Europe likes appeasement very much; this is one of the most important differences between us and the States," Aznar said in an interview on the Bar-Ilan University campus. "Europeans don't like any problems. They prefer appeasement."
The strongly pro-American Aznar, who bucked public sentiment in Spain and backed US President George W. Bush's war in Iraq, served as prime minister from 1996-2004. He is currently in the country for Bar-Ilan's jubilee celebration, at which he will receive an honorary doctorate on Tuesday.
Aznar said Europe had no chance of independently impacting on the situation in the Middle East and would be wise to work closely with the US.
"Do we Europeans have the capacity to change the situation and influence this area? The answer is no," he said.Aznar said that European policy was "not favorable to Israel," and that different political leaders in Europe used the Middle East question as a way to establish a different identity from the US.
"In Europe, Israel is not very popular, not only this government, all governments," he said. "Most Europeans support the Palestinian cause. Europeans sincerely wish for a peace agreement and support the peace process, but the reality is that the peace process is closed. At this moment I think that Europe should work closely with the States, because that is the only opportunity to change the region."
Asked if Israel should, as a result, pay attention to the US, but not necessarily to Europe, Aznar succinctly replied: "Certainly."
Too bad he botched 3-11. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 7, 2005 4:13 PM
there is evidence he wa sset up by the spanish officials investigating the bombings. also, the spanish people on the whole are as bad as the germans or french.
Posted by: cjm at June 7, 2005 5:06 PMSpanish - fascist
frankenreich - fascist writ large. Well, except when the wind blows from the opposite way and franken is commie.
Birds of a feather.
Posted by: Sandy P. at June 7, 2005 7:03 PM"also, the spanish people on the whole are as bad as the germans or french."
Nonsense!
The majority of the Spanish population is center right politically.
Aznar, who supported the Iraq war with men and material, held office through two terms, and was expected to win a third term handily until the 3/11 bombings changed everything. And even then he only lost by a slim margin.
My experience, gained by living in Spain, is that in general the Spanish people are far more conservative and business-minded, and far less anti-American than the French and Germans.
Posted by: H.D. Miller at June 8, 2005 12:04 AMif the majority is center-right, why do they have a hard left government ? weren't there quite a lot of bombings of nato offices and the like (in spain), during the 80's ? while your opinion is based on personal experience, do you have any url's handy to back it up ?
Posted by: at June 8, 2005 1:26 AMOn a somewhat related note, make sure you watch "Barcelona" someday by Whit Stillman. He was living in Spain as a salesman before writing that movie and it is brilliant.
Posted by: Randall Voth at June 8, 2005 3:22 AMrv: where do you think i got the idea of wearing painful leather straps under my clothing ? :)
wonder what happened to whit, he is one of the best writer/directors around.
Posted by: cjm at June 8, 2005 11:10 AMThey don't even list him as having anything in production:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001775/
Posted by: oj at June 8, 2005 11:33 AM"Currently living in Paris, Stillman has been busy adapting Winchester Races, a project with British producer Stephen Evans that would combine two unfinished Jane Austen novels, The Watsons and Sanditon, into a single script. The script would merge two characters: Emma Watson, a young woman who returns to her family after a long absence during which she's been raised by her aunt, and Charlotte Hayward, an attractive country girl who is taken up by a family of comically optimistic real-estate speculators. Should it eventually get made, the film would return Stillman to familiar territory. Both Metropolitan and Barcelona were considered Austen-esque comedies of petty manners."
Posted by: cjm at June 8, 2005 1:39 PMBarcelona was a gem of a movie that grows on you, with a well-deserved happy ending for the two American protagonists who get the beautiful Spanish girls (eat your hearts out, smelly Euro-Guevara poseurs!)
Posted by: Eugene S. at June 9, 2005 7:43 AM