An American Jewish - German Information & Opinion Newsletter

1. AN AMERICAN JEWISH – GERMAN INFORMATION & OPINION
NEWSLETTER
dubowdigest@optonline.net
AMERICAN EDITION
July 24, 2012
Dear Friends:
With the summer vacation season upon us here in the U.S., in Germany it’s that plus
a lot more. It seems as if everybody is “out to lunch” – lunch there is a 24 hour
happening and it runs (usually) for 6 weeks. They get a lot of vacation – and they
take it!
One has to dig through their newspapers to find much that is really of note. Of
course, the Euro may go “belly up” causing some absolutely devastating economic
repercussions. I’m guessing here – but I think many Germans feel that if it’s going to
happen, well, let’s hope it doesn’t mess up our summer vacation. If I was in a cool
spa in the Alps somewhere I’d feel exactly the same way.
When news is sparse, small matters look bigger. For instance, a Russian opera
singer, Evgeny Nikitin happens to have a swastika tattooed on him somewhere and
that caused him to opt out (or be pushed out) of the Wagner Opera Fest in
Bayreuth. No one seems to know why he has a swastika (it’s one of many tattoos he
has) but there it is and there he ain’t anymore, at least in Bayreuth. It made
headlines
Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, in his upcoming European & Middle East jaunt,
had hoped to come to Berlin and meet Chancellor Merkel. It was reported (widely)
that his advisors touted him off of it because they were afraid he couldn’t come close
to the 200,000 person turnout that Barack Obama had in 2008. In addition, the
Chancellor wasn’t available as she was to be in Bayreuth for the Fest. Tickets, even
for a Chancellor, are as hard to come by as for Kentucky basketball games, and
there are some things you don’t pass on.
On a somewhat more serious matter, those politicos who have been contemplating
the outlawing of the neo-Nazi NPD party are in trouble. It seems that someone in the
Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (You’ll have to read below to find out what that is)
shredded secret service files and now a lot of the evidence is gone.
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2. You can’t make these things up.
Enough already! Let’s get on with the news (such as it is)…
IN THIS EDITION
APOCALYPSE SOON? NOT YET! – But maybe soon. The Euro like my NY Mets
can’t seem to get its act together.
GERMAN ARMY JEWS – Yes! There are some.
OBERMAYER GERMAN JEWISH HISTORY AWARDS – Do you have a
contestant?
THE CIRCUMCISION WARS – A German court causes a worldwide problem.
BUNDESAMT FÜR VERFASSUNGSSCHUTZ (BfV) - Keep reading. You’ll find out
what it is below.
GERMAN STUDENT FRATERNITIES – They should stick to beer and coeds.
However, some seem “political”.
ISRAEL & THE EU – Can something good be happening?
APOCALYPSE SOON? NOT YET!
In the last number of months there have been numerous discussions, meetings,
planning events and God knows what else in order to try to save the Euro. Finally, at
the end of June some sort of a complicated 12th hour temporary kind of agreement
was reached with Chancellor Merkel backing down somewhat so that Italy and Spain
could have a little more financial breathing room. The German Bundestag voted in
favor of the agreement. If you follow such matters you have already read about it. If
not, click here a Spiegel On-Line explanation. According to the article she did not
come out so badly after all. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/merkel-
concessions-at-euro-crisis-summit-smarter-than-they-seem-a-841772.html
Maybe the agreement will do the job in solving the Euro financial problems. I
wouldn’t bet on it. There are such wide differences between the various European
countries involved that it is very difficult to get anything to work long term. When you
are dealing with such dissimilar cultures and national needs, you are dealing with,
perhaps, irreconcilable differences. (See your local Divorce Court)
What would happen if some of the European nations said “Bye Bye” to the common
currency? Would it really be such a disaster? About a month ago Der Spiegel
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3. (Spiegel On-Line) took a crack at what might happen if the impossible became
possible. Read it and you’ll shiver. However, you should remember that, at least for
the time being, the inevitable has been put off. What appears below was written
before the latest agreement.
Investment experts at Deutsche Bank now feel that a collapse of the common
currency is "a very likely scenario." German companies are preparing themselves
for the possibility that their business contacts in Madrid and Barcelona could soon
be paying with pesetas again. And in Italy, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is
thinking of running a new election campaign, possibly this year, on a return-to-the-
lira platform.
Nothing seems impossible anymore, not even a scenario in which all members of
the currency zone dust off their old coins and bills -- bidding farewell to the euro, and
instead welcoming back the guilder, deutsche mark and drachma.
It would be a dream for nationalist politicians, and a nightmare for the economy.
Everything that has grown together in two decades of euro history would have to be
painstakingly torn apart. Millions of contracts, business relationships and
partnerships would have to be reassessed, while thousands of companies would
need protection from bankruptcy. All of Europe would plunge into a deep recession.
Governments, which would be forced to borrow additional billions to meet their
needs, would face the choice between two unattractive options: either to drastically
increase taxes or to impose significant financial burdens on their citizens in the form
of higher inflation.
Until now, the defenders of the euro have been able to resort to the massive funds
of the ECB, if necessary. If things got tight, the monetary watchdogs could inject
new money into the market.
But now even the ECB has largely exhausted its resources. It has already bought up
so much of the sovereign debt of ailing countries that any additional shopping spree
threatens to backfire, causing interest rates to explode instead of fall.
It's also clear, says Hamburg economist Dirk Meyer, that the timetable for a euro
exit in the affected countries would begin on a Monday, or "Day X." Over the
weekend, the governments would have issued the surprising announcement that
banks would remain closed on Monday. The bank holiday would be needed to
include all savings and checking accounts in the operation.
On Tuesday, the banks and savings banks would begin stamping their customers'
bank notes with forgery-proof ink. Capital transactions would be monitored. Black
market prices would quickly develop in what the scenario defines as an "unofficial,
virtual currency market." Another bank holiday would be needed to convert accounts
and balances to the new currency. But at least another year would pass before new
bank notes could be printed and distributed. The stamped euro banknotes would
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4. remain legal tender in the meantime.
O.K.! That’s enough! I think you get the flavor of what might happen – and I haven’t
even touched on the damage that would be brought down on the various world
economies including our own. Germany would be particularly hard hit. The
worldwide damage should be understood in 1929 terms. We would be living in a
different kind of a world for a long time to come.
You should read the entire article which you can do by clicking here and pray for the
continuation of the Euro.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/fears-grow-of-consequences-of-potential-euro-
collapse-a-840634.html
However, in the last few days it seems that the Germans feel as if the worst kind of
disaster could be averted and all European banks and institutions are trying to
position themselves for a Greek departure. The Germans are not willing to cough up
anymore funding feeling, I guess, that it would only be more good money going after
bad. Pray harder!
GERMAN ARMY JEWS
While at one time it might have been unthinkable, the post World War II integration
of Jews into all facets of Germany society is continuing apace. Why not? There are
somewhere now between 200,000 and 250,000 Jews living in Germany. While many
of those from the former Soviet Union are not citizens, some are. When those are
added to those whose families have been in Germany since before 1989 you have
quite a few.
While it still may seem an oddity that there can be German Jewish military
personnel, to younger people, I believe, it is not an anomaly. There are, indeed,
Germany Jewish patriots and some have volunteered to serve, Toby Axelrod writing
in JTA recently reported, “Michael Fuerst signed up in 1966 and is likely the first
Jew to do so in West Germany. The Jewish community called him “the shmuck from
Hanover who joined the army,” he recalls with a laugh.
To Jews from the outside, such patriotism may seem odd. But like all social and
legal institutions in West Germany (which carries over to today’s unified Germany),
the military was remade in a democratic image.
One major difference is that soldiers are empowered to disobey a command if they
believe it would lead to a criminal act. And unlike in Hitler’s day, soldiers do not
swear allegiance to the Fuehrer “but to uphold the constitution and defend the
freedom of the German people,” Fischer said.
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5. The earliest records of Jews in Germany go back to the fourth century. Lt. Col.
Gideon Romer-Hillebrecht, the co-editor with 1st Lt. Michael Berger of a new tome
on “Jewish Soldiers-Jewish Resistance in Germany and France,” says Jews may
have fought in Germanic troops as early as the 13th century. But it wasn’t until
Napoleon’s conquest of the western regions that Jews were granted equal rights --
including the right to be drafted, Romer-Hillebrecht told JTA.
In World War I, more than 100,000 Jews served -- that was about a fifth of the total
Jewish population at the time -- and about 12,000 died on the front. Hitler later
blamed Germany’s defeat on Jewish soldiers.
Fuerst, an attorney who has chaired the Jewish Association of the State of Lower
Saxony since 1980, said his grandfathers and uncles served in World War I, “but
nobody was protected by that.” Some of his relatives fled Nazi Germany to the
United States, but his paternal grandfather died in the Riga ghetto. His mother
survived Theresienstadt.
“I am a German patriot, but you know, I know exactly what happened here,” Fuerst
said. “That is the difference between the normal patriot and the Jewish patriot.”
Fuerst was born in 1947 in Hanover, his father’s hometown. In 1966 he signed up to
become a paratrooper -- the only one of his Jewish friends to join the Bundeswehr.
“I always heard from my other friends that I am German, so there were no
discussions in my family about whether I would go to the army or not,” he said.
During the 1967 Six-Day War, he considered fighting for Israel. “For me it was not
so easy. I thought, ‘How can I get to Israel?’ But after five days I did not have to
think about it anymore,” Fuerst said.
“I have no dual loyalty,” he adds. “I have loyalty only for Germany and for my
Jewishness.”
Still, his fellow soldiers sometimes admired him simply because they looked up to
Israeli paratroopers, Fuerst says with a laugh.
Fuerst says he rarely experienced anti-Semitism, either before or during his service.
But he balked during an early military apprenticeship when a captain told the
trainees, “Don’t be so loud: You’re not in the Jew school.”
. Fuerst asked to be transferred to another course. The captain responded, "It is
good that you request this because I have to tell you, I am an anti-Semite … All the
problems we have in Germany were brought to us by the Jews.”
The captain was dismissed from his post the next day.
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6. I have known Michael for a long time. He is an outstanding human being and a
leader among the Jews of Lower Saxony. Probably a bit too old to serve any longer
on active duty, I can understand why he probably made a great soldier.
You can read the rest of the article by clicking here.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/06/26/3099236/germanys-jewish-patriots-find-a-
home-in-the-military
OBERMAYER GERMAN JEWISH HISTORY AWARDS
Every year Arthur Obermayer of Newton, MA gives awards to non-Jewish Germans
who have contributed to maintaining German Jewish history.
Arthur notes in his press release, “As righteous gentiles who protected Jews during the
Holocaust are becoming fewer, a newer generation of non-Jewish Germans today is keeping
alive the memory of former Jewish communities in Germany.
These people are honored each year as recipients of the Obermayer German Jewish History
Award. Nominations are submitted by Jews from outside of Germany, many of whom have
ancestral connections with particular communities in Germany and/or who lost relatives in
the Holocaust.
These awards, which are co-sponsored by the Berlin Parliament, are given in its Plenary
Chamber each January at the time of the German Holocaust Memorial Day. They are
presented to five individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to preserving
Jewish history, culture, synagogues, cemeteries, and so forth, in their own local communities
Past awardees include:
a primary school principal who, for the past 18 years, has had her sixth-grade classes
prepare bricks, each with the name of a local Holocaust victim, as part of a wall which now
has 1,000 bricks
stonemasons who restore dilapidated gravestones
a banker who has raised funds to rebuild a destroyed synagogue
an individual who provides small memorial plaques in the sidewalks where Holocaust
victims had lived
a filmmaker who has contrasted the experiences of teenage Jews and non-Jews during the
Hitler era
a business executive who organized and raised funds to move a long-abandoned
synagogue to a new location 30 miles away.
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7. teachers who, with their classes, have extensively researched and recorded the history of
Jews of their community
Nominations for these awards are currently being solicited, and must be submitted by
September 24, 2012. The winners will be selected by a jury of seven eminent and
knowledgeable individuals. The Call for Nominations and information about past awards and
awardees can be found at http://www.obermayer.us/award.
If you know of someone who might receive such an award please contact Arthur at
the website listed above.
THE CIRCUMCISION WARS
According to Y-Net News, at the end of June a German court ruled that, “Non-
medical circumcision is a "serious and irreversible interference in the integrity of the
human body,” An article in Germany's Financial Times said that the ruling renders
religious circumcisions performed by Jews and Muslims a crime.
The Cologne District Court addressed the issue after a Muslim doctor performed a
circumcision on a four-year-old boy. Two days later the boy's mother brought the
child to the emergency room because he was bleeding.
Charges were subsequently brought against the doctor, who was found not guilty in
the first instance, but the prosecutor appealed.
"The ruling is enormously important above all for doctors because it's the first time
that they have a legal certainty," Holm Putzke of the University of Passau told the
Financial Times.
“The court has, in contrast to many politicians, not allowed itself to be scared by the
fear of being criticized as anti-Semitic or opposed to religion,” Putzke said.
"This decision could not only affect future legal rulings but in the best case it could
lead to a change of consciousness among the affected religions when it comes to
respecting the basic rights of children."
While the ruling in the District Court had no affect on the national level, the hue and
cry from Jews and Muslims throughout Germany and, indeed, the world reached
fever pitch. According to Israel Hayom, “European Jewish Congress President Dr.
Moshe Kantor called the ruling an assault on religious practices.”We would hope
that in Germany of all places where there is a high level of sensitivity to such
freedoms, Jewish life would be allowed to flourish without restriction." Kantor called
on the German government to "take a clear stand against this ruling and [fall] in line
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8. with the German constitution, which guarantees religious freedom."
The German government is usually very sensitive to Jewish concerns. .Foreign
Minister Guido Westerwelle said Sunday that a legal debate "must not lead to
doubts arising internationally about religious tolerance in Germany. He said in a
statement: "The free exercise of religion is protected in Germany. That includes
religious traditions."
Perhaps the most embarrassed person on the issue is the German Ambassador to
Israel Andreas Michaelas. He’s caught between a rock and a hard place. The Times
of Israel reports, “While some German lawmakers are considering drafting
legislation that would enshrine parents’ rights to circumcise their children, there is
little else the German government can do about last month’s decision by a local
court that effectively outlawed the procedure, Berlin’s ambassador to Israel said
Monday.
“I ask for your understanding that the federal government — I represent Germany’s
federal government here in Israel — respects the independence of the German
judiciary. That is no different by us than it is with you. Therefore, my abilities to
comment on this judgment are limited,” Ambassador Andreas Michaelis told the
Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee.
Yet Michaelis emphasized there is no law in the German books that prohibits
circumcisions and that the controversial court ruling only applies locally. “This verdict
is not binding for other courts. It’s a decision based on a single case,” he said.
We’re in a “wait and see” situation at the moment. Members of the Bundestag are
trying to fashion an acceptable law that will allow religious circumcision. So, as I said
above, let’s wait and see!
While we’re doing that the fallout from the court decision is not without some terrible
consequences. Haaretz reported, “Two Swiss hospitals temporarily suspend all
circumcisions, pending a reassessment of policies; a German court recently ruled
the practice illegal.
”…the Zurich children's hospital announced that it was temporarily halting
circumcision operations. "We are in the process of evaluating the legal and ethical
stance in Switzerland," said Marco Stuecheli, a spokesman for the hospital.
"There can be complicated cases where the mother of a child wants a circumcision
but the father is opposed to it," he added.
The hospital said it performs only one or two such operations a month.
Meanwhile, another children's hospital, located in the city of St. Gallen in
northeastern Switzerland, has also decided to reassess its policy on circumcision.
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9. A senior administrator at the hospital told the local media that a decision on the
matter would be reached after the summer vacation.
More “wait and see”.
BUNDESAMT FÜR VERFASSUNGSSCHUTZ (BfV)
What is the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz? In English it’s the Federal Office for
the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency.
Unhappily for Germany it has a very checkered career going back to the time of its
origin in the 1950’s when it was revealed that some of its operatives had worked for
the Gestapo. If you’ve read any of the older John LeCarre novels you know that
intelligence work is “dirty”. How much good it does is another question.
A month or so ago I wrote about a scandal when information emerged that a neo-
Nazi gang had been killing people for almost 10 years right under the noses of the
BfV. Geir Moulson writing in My Way noted, “The case horrified Germany, a nation
where the Hitler era still casts a long shadow: a small band of neo-Nazis suspected
of killing ethnic Turks and others in a seven-year terror spree, undetected by
security forces until a botched bank robbery brought down the group last year.
Now, Germany's domestic spy agency faces awkward questions about a possible
cover-up after revelations that an official destroyed files related to the neo-Nazi
group. The case prompted the government to announce this week that the agency's
head for the past 12 years will take early retirement.
Before he leaves, a parliamentary committee wants to question Heinz Fromm and
the official responsible for the files on Thursday about whether the material was
destroyed by mistake or deliberately.
The case had already proven deeply embarrassing to the agency, the Federal Office
for the Protection of the Constitution, because of the failure to solve the killings of
eight Turkish small businessmen and a Greek between 2000 and 2006 and a
policewoman in 2007.
So we have a long term undetected neo-Nazi gang, 10 or so killings, the destroying
of evidence, a cover up, the resignation of the BfV head, calls for reform – and no
real answers as yet. Where is John LeCarre when we need him?
GERMAN STUDENT FRATERNITIES
If the above article (and others like it) doesn’t convince the federal authorities that
neo-Nazism needs more attention than they have been giving it, how about recent
information regarding German student fraternities.
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10. According to Klaus Dahmann also writing in DW, “Cherished virtues like brotherhood
and secrecy seem to be a thing of the past, as bitter infighting rages between
members of Germany's student fraternities. Two fraternity brothers are now taking
the matter to court.
It's a serious accusation: according to the defendant Christian Joachim Becker,
many of Germany's fraternities have been saturated by right-wing extremism in the
past decades. Some of the country's most significant student fraternities, steeped in
tradition, have already been completely infiltrated.
For this reason, Becker launched the initiative known as Burschenschafter gegen
Neonazis (Fraternities Against Neonazis). With its online portal QuoVadisBuxe, the
organization denounces all forms of right-wing extremism.
One example is Norbert Weidner, who called the theologian and resistance fighter
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed by the Nazis, a "traitor." Weidner said his sentencing
was "legally justified."
Weidner is currently the editor-in-chief of the 'Burschenschaftlichen Blätter',
Germany's fraternity quarterly publication, and is therefore one of the most
influential and highest-paid officials in the larger umbrella organization of Germany's
fraternities, the 'Deutschen Burschenschaft.'
In his youth, Weidner was part of the far-right Viking Youth organization, and then
moved on to become an official in the Free German Workers' Party. After this far-
right party was banned in 1995, Weidner disappeared for a short while, only to re-
emerge in the Bonn area fraternity 'Alten Breslauer Burschenschaft der Raczeks zu
Bonn', the same fraternity to which Becker belongs.
Becker, however, does not want their fight to be reduced to a matter of personal
animosity. On the contrary, he thinks the problem of right-wing extremism is one
faced by the wider community of German fraternities.
"We would like the topic of right-wing extremism at the academic level to be
discussed, and that politicians and the authorities deal with the issue," he said. The
situation is serious, he adds. "Writings by these academic neo-Nazis give rise to far-
right slogans, and this then sparks violence."
The charge that fraternities are a catchment basin for right-wing extremists is not
new. The roots of these student organizations date back to the 19th century. At the
time, the fraternities were staunchly regional, with names like Alemannia, Frankonia
or Rhenania. Fraternities at that time advocated unity, freedom and democracy, and
later wrapped themselves in the national colors of black, red and gold. After the first
unification of Germany in 1871, some of these fraternities drifted off into the
conservative and reactionary camp.
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11. Today, fraternities maintain a dusty and jingoistic Germanness in public life:
antiquated caps belong as much to their uniforms as ribbons in the association
colors. Large flags adorn the facades of the mostly generously equipped and
centrally located fraternity houses.
Becker's initiative against the neo-Nazis has called for the dissolution of the
Deutschen Burschenschaft "due to the tolerance, promotion and financing of right-
wing extremists." For the moment, however, observers believe it more likely that the
organization will shrink until the only members left are those already beholden to the
right-wing extremists.
Is QuoVadisBuxe too late? "The fight is in no way lost," says Becker. "The right-wing
extremists may have won in the larger organization, but for us fraternity brothers
their decision is not conclusive."
Do they have something up their sleeves? "At the moment, a new organization is
being founded," says Becker. "But I'm not allowed to say more"…only that "it won't
be long."
Frankly, I don’t know enough about the German fraternities to know where they
stand politically. However, if there is a neo-Nazi NPD connection the BfV should be
doing something about it. However, in their obviously weakened condition with all
sorts of investigations taking place it’s questionable how much they can do at
present. Whatever the Bundestag or the Chancellor winds up doing about the BfV
scandal, there is no doubt that something has to happen to strengthen the forces
that deal with neo-Nazism. Whether a BfV reform is in order or whether their duties
should be turned over to the police agencies is something that has to be decided
after proper investigation. However, neo-Nazism is not dead. Sadly, it is alive and
kicking so whatever is going to happen should happen soon.
By the way, feeling the heat, somebody must have said, “Do something about it!” So
they did. Spiegel On-Line reported, “Police in Germany carried out raids in three
German states at the homes of suspected neo-Nazis. Officials believe they may
have been in the process of creating a new armed, right-wing extremist group.
You can read the entire by clicking here.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-officials-believe-they-have-uncovered-
new-far-right-group-a-843430.html
ISRAEL & THE EU
When it comes to Israel and the EU, especially its High Representative for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy, Lady Catherine Ashton, I have been very critical. I’ve
written many times that she gave every indication of being anti-Israel and has taken
every opportunity to criticize the Jewish State about its policies in the West Bank.
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12. While Germany remains a staunch friend the overall EU has been cold and critical.
However, an Israeli news service, Y-Net News, recently reported, “Britain's The
Guardian says relations to be upgraded in more than 60 areas including agriculture,
energy and migration
The EU will offer Israel upgraded trade and diplomatic relations in more than 60
areas at a high-level meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, just weeks after European
foreign ministers warned that Israeli policies in the West Bank "threaten to make a
two-state solution impossible," The Guardian reported Monday.
A diplomatic source shared with the newspapers details of the package of benefits
that will be offered to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
According to the report, the EU will widen its relationship with Israel on a range of
areas including migration, energy and agriculture. It will remove obstacles impeding
Israel's access to European government-controlled markets and enhance Israel's
co-operation with nine EU agencies, including Europol and the European Space
Agency
One senior EU diplomat criticized the decision citing Israel's non-compliance with its
obligations under international law. He noted that not one minister was prepared to
oppose Tuesday's agreement for fear of irking Jewish communities.
"I was struck by the fact that a whole range of relations was offered to Israel – at the
request of Israel – as if nothing is happening on the ground," the diplomat said.
"Most ministers are too afraid to speak out in case they are singled out as being too
critical towards Israel, because, in the end, relations with Israel are on the one hand
relations with the Jewish community at large and on the other hand with Washington
– nobody wants to have fuss with Washington.
"So (ministers) are fine with making political statements but they refrain from taking
concrete action.”In January 2009, during Operation Cast Lead, the EU and Israel
postponed upgrade talks due to the situation in Gaza.
Maybe I shouldn’t have included this article. Frankly, I haven’t seen news of this
upgraded relationship between Israel and the EU anywhere else in the press. And,
given the past performance of Lady Ashton and the EU it’s almost too good to
believe. However, it made The Guardian in the UK so it must have some credence.
Perhaps, the EU is coming to terms with Israel’s economic strength. Maybe they
see, as many of us do, that the peace process isn’t going anywhere. “So why cut off
our economic nose to spite our face”.
I would have been happier if Y-Net News had left out the quote from the unnamed
“senior EU diplomat”. What he said reeks of anti-Semitism and I fear that that sort of
feeling is not an isolated matter in the EU diplomatic corp. I guess we’ll just have to
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13. accept the world (and the EU) as it is and hope that the EU – Israel relationship truly
improves. However, at least for the time being – don’t hold your breath.
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See you next month
DuBow Digest is written and published by Eugene DuBow who can be contacted by
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