Abracadabrah

I create as I speak

Olmert Cries Bullsh*t to the Europeans

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told European leaders to stop preaching to him about civilian war casualties in an interview published on Sunday in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag...

"Where do they get the right to preach to Israel?" Olmert said when asked about criticism from European capitals of Israeli military operations that have led to a heavy civilian toll.

"European countries attacked Kosovo and killed ten thousand civilians. Ten thousand! And none of these countries had to suffer before that from a single rocket.

Some 10,000 Albanians died in Serbia's 1998-99 counter-insurgency war and there were allegations of random brutality by both sides.

"I'm not saying it was wrong to intervene in Kosovo. But please: Don't preach to us about the treatment of civilians."

I guess, now that Europe is officially a post-Christian civilization, they don't take that bit about removing the gigantic log in their own eye before criticizing the speck in someone else's very seriously any more.

Not that they ever did.

Speaking of which, I finally viewed the appalling Kingdom of Heaven, by Ridley Scott. Having quite a lot of training in history, I find historical anachronism quite grating on me in general. But the interesting thing about this film, was that, while being laughably, pathetically anachronistic, it was a perfect tribute to the present temperament in Europe.

In it, you have, in the West, a world weary and depressed elite that no longer believes in its own institutions. And is barely willing to defend them. And facing them, you have that part of the Arab civilization that believes most intensely in its own tradition.

One can believe quite readily in that template of Europe conceding to the Arab world.

And, perhaps, they believe, that having ceded Jerusalem once to the Muslims, and gained themselves a measure of peace thereby, it is only fitting to do so again.



Interesting point. The great warrior, Salah Hadin, under whose rein Jerusalem was transfered back to Muslim hands from Christian ones, was a Kurd from Tikrit, not an Arab. FWIW.

posted by Alcibiades @ 5:00 PM