The Germans Have Lost Faith in America Because of Bush

Angela Merkel, German Chancellor with Bush.

With George W. Bush visiting Germany and other parts of Europe this week, German newspapers have been slamming the U.S. president in language stronger than most American dailies use.

The Der Spiegel publication compiled some of the comments, which are quoted below.

Berliner Zeitung: "Rarely has an American president been less popular in this country. And rarely has one embodied the arrogance of power more convincingly than Bush.

"It is unforgotten how he humiliated the United Nations, how he went to war against Iraq with a 'Coalition of the Willing,' how his closest aides portrayed France and Germany as wimps. Bush discredited values which had brought United States worldwide respect. Many have lost faith in America because of the false reasons given for the war, the unlawful imprisonment of terror suspects in Guantanamo, or the photos of Abu Ghraib."

Handelsblatt: "Bush junior wasn't up to the challenge following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, because he let himself be pushed into an unwarranted war by listening to the wrong advisers, and thereby prevented a broad front against terrorism. Constructive Middle East policy was made more difficult, and the regime in Iran was strengthened. Bush didn't just boycott the Kyoto Protocol, he persistently undermined it -- and thereby helped polluters such as China. With this unilateralism Bush damaged America's reputation and curtailed his room for maneuver."

Suddeutsche Zeitung: "In Germany, America is no longer seen as a country of individual liberty, as a reliable ally, and definitely not as a model. There are a large number of justified accusations leveled at Bush's policies. They include dangerous naivete, lies, and the sustained infringement of human rights.

"Bush won't care, but in the thoughts and feeling of many Germans he is leaving behind a mixture of antipathy, ridicule, anger, and skepticism towards U.S. policies and towards America in general. Differentiating between the two has become more difficult with every year of his presidency. The memory of Bush will darken America's image in the world for years to come."

The conservative Die Welt went easier on Bush, though it did criticize him a little. Its comments: "George W. Bush and his government made mistakes. The biggest was to think that democracy could be exported with a guarantee of success. But those who see George W. Bush as having stepped outside the boundaries of Western constitutional values ignore two things: Firstly, the United States really was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, not Germany or France. The U.S. has good reasons to respond decisively to that. And secondly, it's not as though much-praised multilateralism would have made the world a much safer place. Often it was merely an excuse for staying out of trouble and quietly relying on the U.S. to be there when things got serious.

"It's not just George W. Bush who's unwelcome. Ever since Reagan's Berlin visit in 1987, American presidents haven't been especially welcome whenever they embodied the uncomfortable aspect of the Atlantic alliance, which many regard as a burden that should be discarded soon. But the Bush critics are overlooking one thing: Whether Obama or McCain, the coming president of the U.S. will be a difficult partner."

Reported here.

Bush also received protest in Rome, Italy, Ukraine, other parts of Europe. 

Look also an interesting article from James Forsyth: Bush's European tour will be met with a yawn.

Palestine is the Scapegoat of German Past

Angela Merkel addresses the Knesset


German Chancellor Angela Merkel's historic speech to the Israeli Knesset on 18 March 2008 has been almost universally applauded, and has been described by Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Central Council of German Jews, as having "opened a new chapter in the relationship between Israel and Germany."

Having expressed Germans' "shame" for the Holocaust, she goes on to point out that "while we are speaking here, thousands of people are living in fear and terror of Hamas's rocket-attacks and terrorism."

Her clumsy choice of words seems to emphasize the failure to mention the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are living in daily fear and terror of Israeli incursions, home demolitions, assassinations, air-strikes, arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and torture.

However, in fairness, she does in fact mention the Palestinians: "Terror attacks ... bring no solutions to the conflict that overshadows the region and the daily lives of people in Israel and the lives of people in the areas of Palestinian self-rule."

If the Holocaust has imposed a historical obligation upon Germany, then it is in large measure towards the Jewish people. Germany, however, has chosen to interpret this obligation as entailing unconditional support for the State of Israel, a state that did not exist at the time of the Holocaust, thus implicitly or explicitly affirming that state's disputed claim to represent Jewish people everywhere. Germany thereby cuts the ground from under all Jews throughout the world -- including within Israel -- who bravely dissociate themselves from the crimes of the Jewish state. Since ultimately it is such people who have the greatest chance of influencing Israeli political life for the better, Germany is in fact acting as an obstacle to positive change within Israel.

Germany will not have come to terms with its past until it sheds its need for scapegoats, and until it abandons its unconditional support for the Israeli rogue state. Such support entails unconditional participation in the dispossession and politicide of the Palestinian people, hardly a stance consistent with Germany's professed desire to shrive itself. In turn, because the Palestinians are a proud and stubborn people who will "not go gentle into that good night" of national and cultural oblivion, the violence and bloodshed will continue on all sides (I don't write "both sides", because the war against the Palestinian people has ramifications beyond Israel and Palestine). The Israeli politicians and German journalists who laud Angela Merkel to the skies are unwittingly celebrating an enemy of peace and justice, and are playing their part in delaying the advent of a just peace to the Middle East.

By Raymond Deane , a composer and activist. He is currently living for part of the year in southern Germany.

The Vatican’s Stance

Angela Merkel’s speech was full of statements we might expect from a religious leader. Why, then, has the German Pope Benedict refused to issue a similar apology? If you have been following the pope’s speeches and interviews, you will know that his best-known comments are those that have criticized other groups—especially religions.

The pope recently quoted a Byzantine emperor who said that anything new Mohammed had contributed was evil and inhumane. He said the Islamic movement had converted people to its faith by the sword.

Both comments triggered an outcry of protest from the world of Islam.

The pope has also been openly critical of Protestants, wondering how they could even have the title of “church” attributed to them.

He has removed restrictions on the use of the Latin Mass, which includes a call for the Jews to be converted to Catholicism. Recently, he revised the “Good Friday Prayer for the Jews” to read: “Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men.” These alterations have angered many Jews.