Europe, US Differ On Israel's Actions In Gaza

By Cernig

James Joyner, thinking conservative, at The New Atlanticist:

In a post titled "Transatlantic Differences," Alex Massie muses about how differently Americans would react than Brits to news that two members of the shadow cabinet of the conservative party had entered (separately) into homosexual civil unions.

On the foreign policy front, the latest iteration in the seemingly endless cycle of violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict demonstrates a more important transatlantic difference: the United States is virtually alone in its steadfast support of Israel, which most of our European allies see as engaging in reckless brutality.

Javier Solana, the one-time NATO Secretary General and now EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, was blunt: "The current Israeli strikes are inflicting an unacceptable toll on Palestinian civilians and will only worsen the humanitarian crisis as well as complicate the search for a peaceful solution." Similarly, French president Nicolas Sarkozy — who also holds the rotating EU presidency — condemned the invasion as an "unjustifiable provocation" and demanded an immediate ceasefire and the "re-opening of all checkpoints and the immediate resumption of fuel and humanitarian aid deliveries."  Austria's Michael Spindelegger said that "the scores of civilian victims over the last few days are unacceptable" and called on Israel to "avoid a disproportional" response.

... America's virtually automatic support of Israel, even for actions that are not only outside the norms of international law but decidedly unhelpful to our own interests in the Middle East ... is puzzling. It is,  however, a longstanding and bipartisan facet of American foreign policy.   Don't expect anything different when Barack Obama takes office two weeks from now.

Refreshing that the net editor of the main US based NATO-boosting think tank - the one chaired by James L. Jones - is writing this.

Comments

[Peter G.]

I wonder what is the appropriate number of civilian casualties. What is a proportional response? It's easy enough to see what isn't."Proportional response" is a nebulous beast is it not. We only know when we don't see it.