THE HANDSTAND

october 2004

..EUROPEAN NEWS

German Minister Justifies Israeli Barrier

Interior Minister Otto Schily said the controversial West Bank barrier is effective because it has led to a drop in attacks on Israel. He also rejected comparisons between the Israeli fence and the Berlin Wall.

"Those who draw comparisons with the Berlin Wall are wrong, because it does not shut people in and deprive them of their freedom," Schily told Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday. "Its purpose is to protect Israel from terrorists."
Schily, who is currently in Israel for an international conference on terrorism, said the security barrier was the result of decades of failed efforts to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from crossing the border and attacking Israel.
"All the efforts undertaken over many years, even decades, have unfortunately failed to bear fruit," he said. "So it is understandable that Israel should try to erect a protective barrier, which furthermore has shown it works, and I think that the criticism is far from the reality."
In the radio interview, Schily also insisted the security barrier should be referred to as a "fence" and not a "wall," as it is often called in Germany.
Palestinians demand explanations
On Tuesday, Palestinian authorities demanded a thorough explanation for Schily's statements. Cabinet Minister Sajeb Erekat said the German minister's statements were "very strange and unusual," and not in keeping with the official German position on the barrier.
Only recently German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer had criticized the barrier as "barely understandable" from a security point of view. But a spokesman for the German foreign ministry on Tuesday insisted there was no contradiction between the two ministers' remarks. He said that while the German government recognizes that every state has the right to defend its borders, it is still concerned over the route of the barrier, which at times cuts deep into Palestinian territory.
Palestinians say that the erection of concrete blocks, barbed wire, watchtowers and trenches juts into their land and is an attempt by Israel to reduce the size of a future Palestinian state. The International Court of Justice ruled in July that the parts of the barrier built within the West Bank are illegal and should be torn down.
Israel is due to present a revised route of the barrier this week after the Israeli supreme court ruled in a test case that the fundamental rights of tens of thousands of Palestinians living near Jerusalem had been violated.
Islamic terror world's greatest threat
Schliy's "understanding" for Israel's need to protect itself against Palestinian attacks follows earlier statements referring to Islamic terror as the "greatest threat to the civilized world."
At a four-day anti-terror conference held to commemorate the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, the German interior minister said Germany had a special commitment to ensuring Israel's security because of the Holocaust."This responsibility to Israel includes the obligation to support Israel in its fight against terror, and in this context we must be aware that no nation suffered under the scourge of terrorism like Israel," he said on Saturday.

Author: DW staff (AFP, ktz)

http://www.dw-world.de   © Deutsche Welle

Sweden a year after the euro referendum

14.09.2004 - 09:48 CET | By Carl Bildt

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - A year after the stunning result of the Euro referendum, the issue seems almost forgotten in Sweden. The occasional economist points out the long-term advantages of staying outside for an economy as integrated with Euroland as the Swedish, but not even the news of Estonia and Lithuania joining ERM2 and preparing to become part of Euroland as fast as possible made any waves.
The issue is, for all practical purposes, dead for some years to come.

"Militantly" anti-EU

Instead, the big news in the European debate in Sweden is that the Social Democratic party has appointed a militant anti-EU personality as its new Secretary-General. Marita Ulvskog belonged, as Minister of Culture, to those that opposed the government's policy of joining the Euro, and also made that very clear. In the referendum on Sweden's membership of the EU in the autumn of 1994 she also belonged to the No camp.Her appointment is certain to disappoint those that had hoped that the Social Democratic party, after the divisions that were obvious also in the European elections, would try to take a somewhat more active approach on the European issues.

But on her appointment, Ms. Ulvskog made clear that she had no intention of changing her views. Even if Prime Minister Persson is likely to put some restrictions on her in this respect, her top position in the party now also means that there will be clear limits to what the pro-Europeans inside it can do and achieve.


No pro-European movement
After the referendum defeat, there was talk of the pro-Europeans inside the different parties getting more active in trying to shape public opinion, but since then we have seen very little of that.
Prior to the June European Parliament election, there was instead a rather noticeable tendency by even essentially positive parties to play on more sceptical sentiments.In Sweden the saga of the vacillations of the Social Democrats seems to be continuing another round. Former MEP Göran Ferm, who lost out in the infighting inside the party, has recently been openly very critical of his party's obvious lack of leadership on the issues.

The appointment of Ms. Ulvskog as Secretary-General a year after the murder of pro-European respected Foreign Minister Anna Lindh and the stunning defeat in the Euro referendum is certainly not a good sign.

The writer was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994 and a leading campaigner for a "yes" vote in the referendum on the euro

Spain marks return to 'old Europe'

14.09.2004 - 09:59 CET | By Andrew Beatty

Spanish premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has declared old Europe rejuvenated, following a meeting with his French and German counterparts in Madrid yesterday.
Speaking after the meeting with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Mr Zapatero declared that "old Europe is as new".

The Spanish government has been keen to stress the importance of the meeting, signalling that Spain has shifted away from the pro-US policies of the Aznar administration."It has been another meeting… but not just any meeting", Mr Zapatero said according to the Spanish news agency EFE, describing the group as "fervent pro-Europeans".

The German Chancellor in a sideswipe at the centre-right government of José Maria Aznar said that without a Socialist in March’s elections there would have been no "historic" deal on the Constitution.The three men promised to work together for a ‘yes’ vote in the upcoming referendums on the treaty.

However a discussion on the EU’s forthcoming EU budget for 2007-2013 proved to be a little more contentious, with Spain fighting to keep aid for its poorer regions after the accession of 10 new EU members in May this year.

"You are able to have grand ambitions, but unfortunately there are limits" commented the French President.


Turkey threatens to end cooperation with US in Iraq

14.09.2004 - 09:53 CET | By Lisbeth Kirk

While Turkey’s political establishment is pushing for the country to join the EU, foreign minister Abdullah Gül has threatened to cut the country’s traditional partnership with the US in Iraq.

An American military offensive against Tall Afar in Northern Iraq has pushed the Turks to warn Washington. The attack led to the loss of civilians in an area where many Turks live.

"I myself spoke to the American Secretary of State (Colin Powell)", Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said, according to Anatolia news agency reports. "We stated very clearly that if it continues, Turkey will end its partnership on all areas concerning Iraq".

Adultery on the agenda
The Turkish track towards EU membership has some other obstacles to overcome however.
Several EU foreign ministers urged Turkey to drop a controversial proposal outlawing adultery at a meeting in Brussels on Monday (13 September). The Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has proposed criminalising adultery as part of a set of penal code amendments which were originally intended to bring Turkey in line with European norms.

Hayati Yazici, the assistant General Manager of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's lawyer said, according to the Turkish daily Zaman, that he and the AKP would consider the criticisms of the Turkish Penal Code draft.

Political Commissioners?
On 6 October, the European Commission is expected to publish a crucial report on Turkey’s compliance with the standard criteria for EU membership. This report will largely influence a decision in December by member states on whether or not to start accession talks with Ankara.
The EU enlargement commissioner Günter Verheugen has just returned from a trip to Turkey. In an interview with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper on Saturday (12 September), Mr Verheugen said that after 40 years of promises the EU could not refuse Ankara's application, but added Turkey would not join before 2015. The Commission’s report on Turkish readiness to join the EU needs backing from a majority of the college, which seems divided on the issue.

Last week the Dutch Commissioner Frits Bolkestein warned that the European Union will "implode" if farm and regional aid policies remain unchanged by the time Turkey joins the EU. (2015!)A six-page letter from the Austrian Commissioner for agriculture Franz Fischler to his colleagues was circulated to the press over the weekend. Mr Fischler is arguing for a plan B in case Turkey is not adopted as a member of the EU.

The European Commissioners however received sharp rebuke from the Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Mřller.

"Those Commissioners should stop running around playing politicians", he said to Politiken. "They are to deliver a technical judicial evaluation of Turkey but to leave to us [the ministers] to make the political decision".


Unison leaders demand pull-out from Iraq

By Ben Russell

16 September 2004

Union leaders demanded a "speedy withdrawal" of British troops from Iraq yesterday as delegates lined up to condemn the invasion and its aftermath.

Delegates to the TUC conference at Brighton backed a motion calling for troops to be pulled out and for Allied military bases to be dismantled.

Keith Sonnet, deputy general secretary of the public service union Unison, won loud applause for attacking the war as based on "lies and deceit".

He said: "Each day, we watch with horror the continued carnage in Iraq. But we know who is to blame for the chaos. It is George bloody Bush and Tony Blair. We know there will never be peace in Iraq until the occupying British and American forces in Iraq leave. We demand our Government takes immediate steps to end its occupation and to return Iraq to its people. The war was illegal, based upon lies and deceit and it spawned continual human rights abuses."

Mr Sonnet urged trade unionists to join a huge anti-war rally in London planned for 17 October.

Stewart Brown of the Fire Brigades Union said: "It is time to stop the war. It is time for UK and US troops to withdraw. It is time for respect for international law."

Mary Davis, from the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education, said: "There should be no mistake about our opposition to war and occupation. We don't support Anglo-US imperialism masquerading as a crusade to rid the world of tyrants.



nationalism by patrick kavanagh

...As I have said myths are indestructable, but what I should like to point out that myths do not work and the Irish myth is one of them.Ofcourse the Russians had a myth. Dostoevsky in exile at the casinos of Europe is never done lamenting his absence from Russia. But of all patriotic myths the only one in my opinion that came alive and worked for the author was Joyce's myth of Dublin. Why it sustained him is that he never stopped to think, you might say. Once we stop to think the illusion is gone. In the case of a poet's mythology the all embracig fog must remain impenetrable. We must not be able to escape from it. In certain circumstances the only way to succeed in this is to accept failure and by doing so realize that failure is something in the mind.....When Dr. Johnson said that patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel, he was once again right on the mark. In all formal patriotic activity lies the seed of something that is not the seed of virtue. There have been many fine patriots, but there must be some inherent defect in the whole business, seeing that men of little or no principle can readily weigh in with it and nevertheless be accounted fine men.