Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2000, Pages 20, 79

The European Press View the Middle East

 

Europe’s Role in Middle East Questioned as German Chancellor Makes Controversial Visit to the Region

 

By Lucy Jones

At the beginning of November German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder paid a five-day visit to the Middle East, where he held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The German press was initially scornful of the trip. Prior to Schröder’s departure, Bonn’s General-Anzeiger on Oct. 26 described the visit as “absurd,” saying, “It overestimates Berlin’s influence in the region and would place the German government in an awkward position between all sides. Considering Germany’s relationship with Israel, this is something we can ill afford.”

The same day, the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote that the Israeli government would react with outrage to preaching or moral reproaches from Berlin, and that the Palestinians, pampered by German aid, would expect special treatment. Two weeks later, the paper referred to the trip as “a minefield,” reporting that Barak had called for Schröder to ask the Palestinians to end their violence. The German government was forced to respond by saying the chancellor had no plans to do so, the paper said.

By the time the chancellor returned home, however, most German newspapers were forced to concede that the visit had been, if not successful, far from the anticipated disaster. Schröder had shown solidarity with the region’s major players without taking sides, wrote the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Nov. 2. “He accomplished this by knowing that a German chancellor at present can do little more than lend a sympathetic ear and call on all parties to make peace,” said the newspaper.

Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung said the same day that the visit had gone smoothly. “Schröder’s sympathies lay with the victims, be they Israeli soldiers kidnapped by the Hezbollah in Lebanon or wounded Palestinian youths,” it editorialized. “Schröder’s offers of German humanitarian assistance won the respect of the opposing sides.” The chancellor’s visit won him trust, the newspaper said, which allowed him to call for restraint, for example in his explicit warning to Arafat not to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state.

Berlin’s Die Welt of Nov. 2 wrote that Schröder’s critics should acknowledge that he made no mistakes in what is currently the most volatile region in the world. But that is not enough, said the newspaper. While the German government keeps reiterating its wish for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, the paper said, nobody in the chancellor’s office seems to have considered the international responsibilities which that would entail. Schröder would no longer be able to travel the world as a friendly and neutral visitor, the paper pointed out.

The chancellor’s trip led some to question whether Europe should play a greater role in the present Middle East crisis. Augsburger Allegemeine on Nov. 11 put forward the view that Schröder’s trip only highlighted the weakness of the European Union. “The EU has a vital interest in what is happening in the Middle East,” the paper said. “But it lacks a common policy on how to act. The EU can and should play a much more central role in this conflict. Had Schröder gone there as a representative of Europe, he might have contributed more to the creation of a compromise.”

 

The Mideast, Bush and Gore

A few days before Americans went to the polls to elect a president, The Irish Times on Nov. 3 recounted the special concerns each candidate brings the peoples of the world. While Asians may fear a more confrontational approach to China under a Bush administration, the paper said, Arabs worry that Al Gore would bring a clear tilt to Israel, giving the U.S. its first Jewish vice-president in Joseph Lieberman. And if the franchise were extended beyond the U.S. borders? According to the paper, Israelis favor Gore, while Bush enjoys a “marginal edge among Palestinians.”

The ensuing election debacle led Austria’s Kronen Zeitung, in its Nov. 24 edition, to comment on U.S. efforts—or non-efforts as the case may be—to mediate in the Middle East conflict. Any influence Washington could have had on either camp has been lost, the paper argued, because of the domestic election fiasco which was consuming the country. Considering that no one knows who’s going to be sitting in the White House next year, the paper concluded, American authority is not exactly of any use right now.

 

Egyptian Vote Seen as Improvement Over Last Election

Egypt’s parliamentary election served as a reminder of the peacefulness of the U.S. vote. The UK’s Daily Telegraph reported on Nov. 14 that at least 14 people were killed during the three rounds of balloting—four when police fired live ammunition on crowds protesting official efforts to prevent people voting for an independent candidate. This was down from 60 deaths in Egypt’s 1995 election.

The same day, the British Independent attributed this improvement to a court ruling mandating that each polling station should be supervised by a judge rather than a government official, to end “the legacy of stuffing ballot boxes.” Nevertheless, a voter told the paper, “These elections are free and fair, but only if you want to vote for the person the government wants.”

 

Sentencing of German Youths For Algerian’s Death Sparks Racism Debate

In mid-November 11 youths were sentenced by a German court in connection with the death of an Algerian asylum-seeker in the eastern German town of Guben. The youths chased Farid Guendoul, who jumped through a glass door to escape and subsequently bled to death as result of his injuries. Nine of the defendants were found guilty on charges of manslaughter, bodily harm, and incitement of hatred.

The 17-month trial followed a spate of racially motivated attacks in Germany and was closely scrutinized by the media and anti-racist groups. Berlin’s Tagesspiegel on Nov. 24questioned the length of the sentences given to three of the youths. Three and two years in youth detention are relatively long sentences for manslaughter by negligence, said the newspaper. Even for murder or aggravated manslaughter, juveniles in Germany may be incarcerated for a maximum of five years. For that reason, expectations that the court would deliver draconian sentences were unrealistic. While the asylum seeker was hounded to death in Guben, the justice system cannot punish people for having evil views, the paper maintained, but can only address resulting crimes.

Several German papers, however, clearly thought the verdict in the Guben case was not tough enough. The Leipziger Volkszeitung of Nov. 24 criticized the lack of reaction to the repeated desecration of a memorial marking the death of Guendoul. It also noted that another asylum seeker injured in the same attack was almost deported by state authorities. More than 200,000 Berliners have demonstrated in anti-racist rallies, continued the newspaper, and politicians and officials are doing everything in their power to stop the public financing of the extremist right-wing National Democratic Party. Those are powerful signals, both at home and abroad, the paper acknowledged, but apparently far too little has happened to convince an overextended justice system to deliver appropriate judgments in a timely fashion.

The Badische Neueste Nachrichten on the same day described the sentences as anything but strict. The judge stated that all the defendants were responsible for the death of this Algerian man, the paper noted, but only three of the 11 right-wing extremists will serve a jail sentence. This is clearly a very mild sentence for such an atrocious crime, the paper said, concluding that there is no way this result will have any deterrent effect on other potential criminals.

 

As Palestinian Desperation Grows, Arafat Visits Moscow

Arafat’s surprise visit to Moscow to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to bring the Russians into the peace process led Italy’s La Repubblica on Nov. 24 to ask whether the Israelis and Palestinians are both looking for a way to put down their weapons. “First the Palestinians say they’re ready to go back to the bargaining table,” the paper commented. “Then Peres responds by saying the negotiations can begin again. But as usual, each side is waiting for the other side to make the first step. Arafat asked for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an obvious effort to bring Moscow into the peace process. One gets the impression that both sides are searching for a way out of the present situation but they haven’t found it yet.”

The newspaper warned, however, that there are only a few politicians left in Israel and Palestine who, after all these horrible recent events, still believe in peace. But the fact remains that both peoples live very closely together and are therefore forced to find a compromise. The situation, which more and more resembles a war between two unequal foes, should not be allowed to continue unabated, said the paper, or it will degenerate into an enormous massacre. That would not serve the interests of anyone except a handful of fanatical minorities. The problem, according to the paper, is that the Palestinians are convinced that so far they have achieved nothing at all: They still have no state and no currency. A great many of them do not even have work, the paper added, which is why the only thing that grows in Palestine is desperation.

 

Barak Faces Criticism at Home

By the end of November Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was facing opposition from within his government and sliding support in public opinion polls. Palestinians rejected as incomplete a new peace deal Barak proposed to end the present crisis. Commenting on the prospect of Barak facing early elections, the Dutch paper Algemeen Dagblad said on Nov. 30: “Barak is taking a big risk. His chance of getting re-elected depends on the willingness of the Palestinians to seriously sit down and negotiate a peace deal in the coming months. As everyone knows, that is a task fraught with uncertainty.”

Austria’s Der Standard on the same day said that perhaps Barak has too little political intuition. “He also has the bad luck of governing in a time when he is presented with problems that cannot be easily solved,” the paper observed.

Lucy Jones is a free-lance journalist based in New York.

< Prev		Next >