Transatlantic Intelligencer

Moving Back to "New" Trans-Int

2009-10-01T10:56:00.002-04:00

For the latest trans-int posts, please go to www.trans-int.com. New posts will henceforth only be posted there. Thanks.

Purported Qaeda Video Threatens -- and Thanks -- Germany

2009-09-20T15:05:00.003-04:00

The appearance of a purported Al-Qaeda video message threatening Germany has been widely reported. What has been less reported, however, are the profuse words of thanks to Germany with which the video begins.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

"New" Trans-Int Site Back Online

2009-09-18T10:46:00.002-04:00

Please note that a redesigned version of the old "new" Trans-Int site is now back online at www.trans-int.com. Consider this a "beta" period. So, I will for the time being post new posts both at this blogspot site and at trans-int.com. Please beware that the content of the two sites is not identical. Though I have done some reposting, the majority of posts exist only on one site or the other. Thanks as always for your interest.

Rendition "Victim" Masri Assaults German Mayor

2009-09-18T08:53:00.002-04:00

During the last years of the Bush administration, Khaled Al-Masri, aka Khaled El-Masri, became the poster child of the international campaign again the American program of “extraordinary renditions.” Last Friday, Masri was arrested after assaulting the mayor of the German city of Neu-Ulm. This was just the latest in a series of violent crimes committed by Masri in recent years. But, curiously enough, the German courts have yet to sentence him to any jail time.

For the details, see my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Neo-Nazis Join Islamists at Al-Quds Day Demonstration in Berlin

2009-09-13T17:22:00.002-04:00

Alongside the internationally better known National-Democratic Party of Germany or “NPD,” the German People’s Union (DVU) is one of the two main German political parties of the so-called “extreme Right.” A statement published by the DVU on Wednesday, however, makes clear just how misleading it is to describe Germany’s contemporary Nazi groups as “right-wing.” The topic of the DVU statement is the “Al-Quds Day” demonstration that was held on Saturday in Berlin.

For the details, see my new article on Pajamas Media here.

David Irving, El Mundo and the Banality of Revisionism

2009-09-11T09:51:00.002-04:00

The decision of the Spanish daily El Mundo to publish an interview with the revisionist historian David Irving has sparked controversy. But consideration of the actual content of the interview reveals that the central tenet of Irving’s revisionism has, in effect, become part of the European mainstream.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Germany and the Shalit Negotiations: Helping Israel or Helping Hamas?

2009-09-04T13:48:00.002-04:00

There has been much talk lately of Germany negotiating a deal for the release of the Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit. The accent in the English-language reports has been placed on the “help” being provided by Germany to the Israelis. But a headline in the August 27 edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) offers a different perspective. “Hamas is Counting on the Germans,” it reads...

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Afghanistan and the German Elections

2009-09-02T08:09:00.002-04:00

“German Party Calls for Plan for Removal of Troops From Afghanistan”. Thus ran the headline of a recent article in the New York Times. In the meanwhile, a German party has indeed called for a plan for removing German troops. But, unfortunately for the New York Times, it is not the party about which the Times was talking...

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

"Inglourious Basterds": A German Fantasy, Not a "Jewish" One

2009-08-28T06:42:00.003-04:00

Nearly eight million euros. Or more than eleven million dollars at the current exchange rate. That is the total amount of subsidies that Quentin Tarantino received from German public sources for his Inglourious Basterds. And on closer consideration, Inglourious Basterds is indeed a very German film.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

The SPD's Nightmare Summer Gets Worse

2009-08-26T17:43:00.004-04:00

The German Social Democrats were already having a bad summer. And then chancellor candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier decided to do a televised "townhall meeting." The result was this...

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

The Double Standards of German Justice (Scheungraber and Demjanjuk)

2009-08-24T04:40:00.005-04:00

Germany’s avid pursuit of the 89-year-old John Demjanjuk creates the impression that German authorities are vigilant about prosecuting Nazi war crimes. The recent conviction by a German court of the 90-year-old former Wehrmacht officer Josef Scheungraber reinforces this impression.

Josef Scheungraber at memorial ceremony (source: 3sat)

But closer consideration of the Scheungraber case shows precisely the opposite to be the case. It reveals the extremely high bar that has been set by German authorities for bringing charges against German suspects in Nazi-era war crimes cases. This high bar contrasts sharply with the extremely low bar that has been used in the case of the Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Socialist Party Discipline

2009-08-15T02:24:00.002-04:00

Despite frequent denials, many signs suggest that the SPD would be prepared to form a government with the support of the "post-Communist" Left Party following the general elections in Germany in late September. The clearest sign is the treatment reserved by the SPD for four local representatives who rejected such a solution in the German state of Hessen last year.

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

Why Did Germany Honor an Israel Basher?

2009-08-14T13:19:00.002-04:00

Some have suggested that Germany’s award of the “Federal Merit Cross, 1st Class” to Felicia Langer was merely an unfortunate mistake: a matter of “inadequate research” on the part of German authorities. But a closer look at the circumstances surrounding the award reveals that Langer was honored not in spite of her anti-Israel invective, but precisely because of it.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Who Said It? Europe Must Protect Us From "Anglo-Saxon" Capital

2009-08-12T11:57:00.004-04:00

Which German politician said the following?

As a citizen, I would not like again to become the object of Anglo-Saxon financial capital. Germany does not protect me from this, but only Germany in Europe does.

For the answer, see my new post on NewMajority.com here.

"Chicago" Politics or EU Politics?

2009-08-12T11:45:00.002-04:00

The Obama administration's call for Internet-users to flag "fishy" e-mails or websites opposing health-care reform legislation has sparked charges that the administration is engaging in "Chicago" politics. But if one considers more carefully what the administration has actually done, EU-style politics might be the more appropriate comparison.

See my new article at The American Spectator here.

Michael von Wedel: A German Anti-Terror Cop's Lament

2009-08-11T04:12:00.003-04:00

Michael von Wedel was a counterterrorism agent in Germany's Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BKA). In 2002, he would be assigned the investigation of one Reda Seyam: a German-based Islamist and the presumed Qaeda financier of the 2002 Bali bombings. At one point, he would be ordered by his agency superiors to protect Seyam – namely, from the CIA. In his recent book, Die Abrechnung ["Settling Accounts"], Von Wedel writes that his investigations confirmed Seyam’s involvement in the Bali bombings. Nonetheless, no charges have ever been brought against Seyam in Germany, where he lives to this day on a reported €2300 a month in social benefits. Von Wedel, by contrast, was dismissed from his job at the BKA, charged with professional misconduct and was last reported to be living on a welfare check of €239 a month.

See my new article in Policy Review magazine here.

The Other Trouble with Mary: Mary Robinson and America

2009-08-09T12:59:00.006-04:00

President Obama’s awarding of a Presidential Medal of Freedom to former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson has sparked widespread criticism. Commentators have pointed to Robinson’s role in the infamous 2001 Durban “anti-racism” conference and, more generally, to what has been suggested is a long record of bias against Israel. Oddly enough, however, little has been made of Robinson’s views on America. More specifically, her once-upon-a-time controversial criticisms of the Iraq war and the “war on terror” appear to have fallen into a memory hole.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

The "Good Arguments" of the Islamists?

2009-08-05T05:18:00.002-04:00

"The Good Arguments of the Kyrgyz Islamists" -- This is the title of a recent report from Kyrgyzstan by Michael Ludwig of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The fact that Ludwig's local Islamist interlocutor identified the "extermination" of the Jews as one of the points of his party's program apparently did not give the FAZ editors cause to pause...

See my new post on the American Spectator blog here.

Terror Money Tracking Program Sparks German Hysteria

2009-08-01T14:30:00.002-04:00

Most of Europe has reacted calmly to news that the EU plans to continue permitting US intelligence agencies some access to bank transfer data as part of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program. Not Germany, however...

See my new translation of an article by Joachim Steinhöfel on Pajamas Media here.

More on Felicia Langer and the German "Merit Cross"

2009-07-25T04:28:00.004-04:00

The Baden-Württemberg government's account of the ceremony in which Felicia Langer received Germany's highest honor emphasizes Langer's engagement on behalf of "humanity," "peace," and "human rights." Who could object to that? But in the meanwhile, we know more about what government representative Hubert Wicker actually said at the ceremony and his words reveal that Langer’s anti-Israeli militancy was part and parcel of the reasons for bestowing the award upon her.

See my new post on NewMajority.com here.

Felicia Langer's "Special Contributions" to Germany

2009-07-22T18:01:00.002-04:00

Why would Germany award its highest honor, “The Federal Cross of Merit, First Class”, to the Israel-bashing attorney Felicia Langer? An examination of a selection of her statements as taken from a variety of sources provides some obvious clues.

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

Honduran Archbishop Blasts Zelaya and Chavez

2009-07-18T04:19:00.002-04:00

According to the Catholic news agency Zenit, Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, has said that the Catholic Church is "not taking sides" in the current conflict in Honduras. But this is hardly the impression one gets from a lengthy interview he has given to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

See my new report on the American Spectator blog here.

Obama: Working with the Pope to Help the World?

2009-07-09T17:34:00.002-04:00

This is the title of an interview with President Obama that was published last week in an Italian Catholic daily -- though minus the question mark.

For some select quotes, see my new post on the American Spectator blog here.

Climate Change and Nazism: Sarko Said It First

2009-07-08T17:18:00.002-04:00

Much of the blogosphere is presently up in arms about Al Gore comparing the "battle against climate change" to that against Hitler and Nazi Germany. But only a month ago, none other than French President Nicolas Sarkozy made precisely the same comparison during the ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of the Normandy invasion.

See my new post on the American Spectator blog here.

EU Democracy: What an Endorsement!

2009-07-05T11:58:00.004-04:00

One of the surprises of last month’s European Parliament elections was the success of the EU-critical list of the Austrian journalist Hans-Peter Martin. Martin’s “Dr. Martin List” won some 18% of the Austrian vote.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recently ran a review of Martin’s book “The European Trap: The End of Democracy and Prosperity” [Die Europafalle: Das Ende von Demokratie und Wohlstand]. Reviewer Frank Decker accuses Martin of populism and employs a curious argument to support the charge:

It is certainly true that the elite-based structure of the EU may be one of the principal causes for the EU’s vexatious democracy deficit. But it also provides the explanation for the epoch-making progress in the process of [European] integration, which would never have been possible in a fully democratized system of decision-making.

Was Ahmadinejad an Accomplice to a 1989 Assassination in Vienna?

2009-07-02T10:27:00.002-04:00

Since 2005, there have been rumors that Mahmud Ahmadinejad was involved in the July 1989 assassination of three Iranian Kurdish opposition figures in Vienna. Now, the Austrian politician Peter Pilz has published the deposition of a German arms-trafficker who appears to corroborate the claim. How credible are the allegations? And what lessons can be drawn from the 1989 episode as concerns the current power struggle in Iran? In fact, even supposing that Ahmadinejad was somehow involved, they are by no means as clear-cut as Peter Pilz would suggest.

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

FAZ has Proof! Bush was Hitler (and Muslims were his Jews)

2009-06-29T10:38:00.002-04:00

The American novelist and essayist Louis Begley was in Frankfurt’s Old Opera House earlier this month to promote the German edition of his new book Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters. The English edition is first scheduled for release in late August. Oddly enough, however, a German translation has already been published. The German edition bears a different title: "The Dreyfus Affair: Devil’s Island, Guantánamo, a Historical Nightmare".

The German title is not only grammatically puzzling. Why the emphasis on Dreyfus’s place of imprisonment — which was an incidental feature of the Dreyfus Affair, after all? And what is the “historical nightmare”? And what does Guantánamo have to do with it? An article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) makes somewhat clearer the significance of these associations...

See my discussion on Pajamas Media here.

Gitmo Detainees: The Obama Admin's Troubling Amnesia about Germany

2009-06-22T07:41:00.004-04:00

The Obama Administration wants to send Gitmo detainees to Germany and the German Interior Ministry has indicated that it is prepared to accept detainees on the condition that they have some "connection" to Germany. But a list of some other persons who have or have had a connection to Germany -- persons like Mohammed Atta, Mamoun Darkazanli, and Reda Seyam -- makes clear why this is a bad idea.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Wannabe Martyrs? Zacarias Moussaoui and the Gitmo Five

2009-06-17T09:55:00.002-04:00

The Obama Administration is reported to be “gravely concerned” that by permitting Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four accused 9/11 co-conspirators to plead guilty it could be fulfilling their “desire” for martyrdom. But is it in fact the aim of KSM and his co-conspirators to incur the death penalty and thus achieve “martyrdom”? Well, it should be recalled that the virtual entirety of the American media said the same thing about Zacarias Moussaoui. A closer look at the transcripts of the Moussaoui trial reveals, however, that the leitmotif of virtually all Moussaoui’s motions and statements before the court was precisely, as he put it, “the defense of the life that Allah, the most masterful, has granted to me.”

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

And as an extra NewMajority is also publishing for the first time the complete transcripts of Moussaoui's testimony at his 2006 trial. See "The Moussaoui Transcripts" here.

No Wine with Your Lamb, Mr. President?

2009-06-09T17:09:00.003-04:00

This is how the Associated Press describes the Presidential family’s night out in Paris on Saturday:

When dining out Saturday night at a no-star bistro, La Fontaine de Mars, the presidential party was served water, Coke and table wine to accompany foie gras, lamb and steak with shallots, and paid for meals “like any client,” said owner Jacques Boudon. “It's just what they wanted.”

Table wine? This is not what a waiter from the restaurant said on French television. What he said was “pas de vin”: no wine. The waiter Gabriel de Carvalho is quoted in this French-language AFP report saying the same thing:

They were very happy. They said that they had had a “wonderful meal.” The President was extremely nice with the staff. He had the leg of lamb and an île flottante [for dessert]. No wine, just water.

Jacques Boudon, the owner of La Fontaine de Mars, is cited in the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche on the same subject. The relevant passage bears close comparison with the AP report, which also cites Boudon as source. It reads as follows:

Foie gras, steak, lamb, strawberries and coca-cola… If the Obamas decided to sample French cuisine last night, they skipped the wines. “Barack Obama does not drink wine,” Jacques Boudon whispers…

Oddly enough, in a recent interview with the French cable news channel iTélé, Obama mentioned “the wine” as one of the things he “loves about France.” (On the iTélé interview, see my article here.)

It could be, of course, that this episode means nothing at all and that Boudon’s conclusion that “Barack Obama does not drink wine” is an overstatement. Perhaps the President simply did not want wine on that particular evening. But if the AP was going to go the trouble of reporting on the President’s dinner menu, why does it not report what Boudon and Carvalho in fact said on the matter? Why does it report precisely the contrary of what they said?

In Dresden, Obama Does Not Disappoint...Germans

2009-06-08T15:27:00.002-04:00

President Obama did not say much about the significance of his stop in Dresden. But he did not have to say anything. The heavily loaded symbolism of his visit to Dresden's Frauenkirche did the talking for him.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Buchenwald: Obama Flunks History...Again

2009-06-05T15:18:00.002-04:00

During last year's election campaign, Obama famously confused Auschwitz and Buchenwald. To judge by his decision to commemorate the Holocaust at the latter, he appears still to be confused...

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

Sobbing French Bush-Hater Lands Exclusive Obama Interview

2009-06-03T17:03:00.004-04:00

How did the small French cable news channel iTELE land an exclusive interview with President Obama? Well, perhaps it has something to do with the interviewer, Laurence Haïm. Before landing her Obama interview, Ms. Haïm's greatest claim to fame was to have burst into tears when announcing the re-election of Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, in 2004.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Not an Anti-Semitic Crime? Inside the Trial of Youssouf Fofana

2009-06-01T16:32:00.004-04:00

The trial of Youssouf Fofana and his “Gang of Barbarians” has been closed to the press and public. One French journalist, however, has found a “work-around” in order to be able to report on the trial. Numerous details from her reports suggest that anti-Semitism played a more fundamental role in the kidnapping and murder of Ilan Halimi than has hitherto been acknowledged by French authorities. After all, if Fofana’s motives were strictly economic, why should he say that he is “proud” of having killed Halimi?

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

Germany's Lie: John Demjanjuk and German Normality

2009-05-28T03:08:00.001-04:00

In his recent study Unser Kampf: 1968, historian Götz Aly provides details from the CVs of two leading West Berlin police officials at the time of the 1967 shooting of student protestor Benno Ohnesorg. The thoroughly ordinary German biographies of the two men cast an instructive light upon Germany’s plans to try John Demjanjuk.

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

More on the Ilan Halimi Photo

2009-05-23T12:43:00.002-04:00

So, now it turns out that the photo of Ilan Halimi in captivity whose publication by the magazine Choc is supposed to be so scandalous has in fact already been shown in the French media. This did not, however, prevent a French court from ordering the issue of Choc withdrawn from circulation.

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

A Photo of Barbarity: The Torment of Ilan Halimi

2009-05-21T12:13:00.003-04:00

The publication of a horrifying photo of Ilan Halimi has caused a scandal in France – but for all the wrong reasons. Halimi was the 23-year-old French Jew who was kidnapped, abused, and killed by a self-styled “Gang of Barbarians” in early 2006. Apart from the brutality that it documents, the photo is also significant for another reason. It provides evidence about the motives of the crime. Ilan’s tormentors appear to have been inspired by perhaps the most notorious anti-Semitic crime of the last decade: the kidnapping and killing of Daniel Pearl.

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

The Demjanjuk Farce Continued

2009-05-21T07:44:00.003-04:00

John Demjanjuk is said to have been a foreign "volunteer" of Nazi Germany. But how did captured Red Army soldiers become "volunteers" in POW camps in German-occupied Poland? And what about all the convicted Nazi war criminals that Germany has refused to extradite to face justice abroad?

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

"The Lobby" (FAZ Interview with Amr Moussa)

2009-05-19T03:33:00.002-04:00

What lobby? FAZ correspondent Rainer Hermann and his readers apparently know who runs the show in Washington...

See my new post on NewMajority.com here.

The Next Europe Trip: Will Obama Apologize for WWII?

2009-05-12T13:48:00.002-04:00

According to recent reports in the German media, President Obama is planning a trip to Germany in early June, just prior to his participation in ceremonies in France marking the 65th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy. That Obama would be planning a trip to Germany in connection with ceremonies marking the anniversary of the Normandy invasion is already rather odd. But when one considers where exactly in Germany Obama appears to be headed - viz. Dresden - then the significance of the visit becomes more clear.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

German YouTubers Heart Ahmadinejad

2009-05-07T13:06:00.002-04:00

For many years now, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been speaking to Germany: in a long letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in two interviews with the German weekly Der Spiegel, and in passing remarks in numerous speeches and press conferences. He has been speaking to Germany in terms that Americans might fail to recognize, but that will be extremely familiar to his intended audience: namely, in the classical terms of post-WWII German revisionism. And to judge by the comments on a YouTube clip of his recent speech in Geneva, his message has been greatly appreciated...

See my new article/translation on Pajamas Media here.

Obama and the Spanish "Torture" Investigation

2009-04-30T04:32:00.004-04:00

What inspired Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón to open an investigation into torture at Guantánamo less than two weeks after the Spanish Attorney General appeared to say that he was opposed to such a move? Short answer: the Obama administration.

See my new post on NewMajority.com here.

New Al-Dura Footage Heightens Mystery

2009-04-28T05:44:00.003-04:00

Journalist Esther Schapira's second documentary on the "Al-Dura Affair," which was shown last month on Germany's ARD public television, sparked a brief flurry of commentary in the new media: brief, undoubtedly, because the documentary is for the time being only available in German. But the biggest revelation in the film was passed over in silence: namely, a few seconds of footage that appears to show Mohammed Al-Dura wounded. Was the emblematic "boy-martyr" of the 2nd Palestinian Intifada in fact killed? But if so, by whom and under what circumstances?

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

Signs and Wonders: The Germans Return to Iraq

2009-04-27T11:59:00.002-04:00

"Once upon a time, Herodotus recounts, a solar eclipse prevented a war between Sparta and the Persians. The war came anyway, but later. For it was not peace that the wonder foretold, but rather a catastrophe so great that even such a weighty day-to-day matter as war had to be deferred."

Thus writes Thomas Uwer in an article in the April edition of the German monthly Konkret. Uwer worries that the recent apparition in Iraq of German politicians Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Peter Gauweiler, and Herta Däubler-Gmelin might also be the sign of an impending catastrophe. See my translation of Uwer's article on Pajamas Media here.

The "Rightwing Extremism" Report and the Bogus Europeanization of American Politics

2009-04-19T17:15:00.002-04:00

One of the oddest aspects of the DHS “rightwing extremism” report is the very use of the expression “rightwing extremism.” There is very little tradition of using this broad-brush designation to discuss American political movements. The German equivalent — Rechtsextremismus — is, however, a standard element of German political discourse. Could the DHS "analysts" have been aping German usage? It would seem so...

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Holbrooke and Iran: Renewing Old Ties

2009-04-08T06:18:00.002-04:00

According to Hillary Clinton, American “Af-Pak” envoy Richard Holbrooke had a brief, but “cordial” encounter with an Iranian representative in The Hague last week. And if there is any American official with whom the Iranians could be expected to have “cordial” interactions, it would surely be Richard Holbrooke. For Holbrooke and an administration he represented have in fact already cooperated with Iran in a crisis region. That was in Bosnia during the Bosnian civil war. Though perhaps the word "collusion" would be more fitting than "cooperation."

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

Berlin, Two Days After 9/11

2009-04-01T16:29:00.002-04:00

Barack Obama is currently in Europe attempting to "restore America's standing in the world" and regain the sympathy that George Bush is famously supposed to have “squandered” after the 9/11 attacks. But it is worth remembering what the atmosphere was really like in the heart of Europe in the aftermath of the attacks. In his 2002 book "No War, Nowhere" [Kein Krieg, Nirgends], Henryk Border reports on an important intellectual gathering that took place in Berlin two days after 9/11. There was indeed a great deal of sympathy on display. It was, however, for the most sympathy with the perpetrators of the attacks, not with the victims.

See my new translation of Broder's report on NewMajority.com here.

Taliban to US: Let's Talk, But We Can't Diss Al-Qaeda

2009-04-01T10:35:00.003-04:00

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef says the Taliban would be prepared to talk -- so long as they don't have to renounce their ties to Al-Qaeda. See my new post on NewMajority.com here.

Le Pen...Again or Europe's Canned Outrage

2009-03-30T17:44:00.002-04:00

As has been widely reported, Jean-Marie Le Pen last week repeated his famous remark about the Nazi gas chambers being a “detail of the Second World War,” leading to yet a new round of denunciations of Le Pen. On closer inspection, however, far from preserving the memory of Nazi crimes, the ritualized denunciation of Le Pen’s remark in Europe today serves in fact to diminish them. See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

The Demjanjuk Farce or Will Germany Get Its Show Trial?

2009-03-21T15:32:00.002-04:00

Last week, the Munich district attorney’s office announced that it was charging the 88-year-old John Demjanjuk with some 29,000 counts of accessory to murder for his alleged activity as a guard at the Sobibor concentration camp during the Second World War. Germany is seeking the long-time Ohio resident’s extradition. The spectacular development will lead many Americans to believe that Germany is exceptionally thorough and vigilant about prosecuting Nazi war crimes. And this is indeed presumably the purpose of the Demjanjuk indictment – for the reality could hardly be more different.

See my new article on New.Majority.com here.

Maybe Not Such a Great Idea: More on Talking with "Moderate Taliban"

2009-03-15T09:28:00.003-04:00

In remarks reported on Tuesday, 10 March, by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung reflected on the idea of holding talks with "moderate Taliban." Jung expressed openness to the idea, but insisted on the condition that the Taliban in question must have already sworn off violence. Moreover, as the FAZ reports:

Jung also recalled "negative experiences" of the NATO-led ISAF forces in southern Afghanistan. After British forces there had come to an agreement with Taliban in Musa Qala, the latter are supposed to have murdered schoolchildren who were learning English and their teachers.

Obama's "Moderate Taliban": An Odd Idea, But not an Original One

2009-03-15T09:19:00.003-04:00

The most surprising thing about President Obama’s suggestion that America should perhaps reach out to moderate Taliban is undoubtedly the very expression “moderate Taliban.” But the idea is not an original one. In 2007, the then Chairman of Germany's Social Democratic party, Kurt Beck, already proposed talks with "moderate Taliban." He was seconded by German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

For the details, see my new article on Pajamas Media here.

The ICC and Sudan: A Troubling Decision

2009-03-11T13:36:00.002-04:00

The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has predictably been welcomed by human rights organizations. It has also been welcomed by Hassan al-Turabi. This fact should give at least Americans serious pause concerning the benefits of the ICC's move. For Turabi is not only Sudan's leading Islamist. He is also the man who brought Osama bin Laden and his followers to Sudan in the 1990s.

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

A Message from an Iraqi for Herta Däubler-Gmelin

2009-03-05T12:30:00.002-05:00

Last week, a “human rights” delegation from the German Bundestag paid a visit to Erbil in the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq. The delegation was headed by none other than the former German Minister of Justice, Herta Däubler-Gmelin: the same Herta Däubler-Gmelin who in September 2002 famously compared George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler on account of his plans to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi human rights activist Falah Muradkhin Shakaram, a survivor of the notorious poison gas attack on Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan, wonders why Ms. Däubler-Gmelin is only concerned about human rights in Iraq now. See my translation of his commentary on NewMajority.com here.

French Justice: Train with Qaeda, Get out of Jail Free

2009-03-02T13:02:00.002-05:00

Last Tuesday, a Parisian appeals court overturned the convictions of five former Guantanamo inmates who had been found guilty on terrorist conspiracy charges in 2007. The ruling should give pause to wonder not only about the wisdom of plans to transfer Guantanamo inmates to European countries, but more fundamentally about the very idea of treating the “disposition” of Guantanamo inmates as an issue for civilian courts.

See my new article at NewMajority.com here.

More German-Iranian "Dialogue"

2009-02-27T15:30:00.002-05:00

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder used the occasion of his four day visit in Tehran last week to criticize Iranian Holocaust denial. “The Holocaust is a historical fact,” Schröder is reported to have said, “and it makes no sense to deny this unparalleled crime.” This was perhaps intended as friendly advice, since Schröder evidently does not believe that the Iranian government’s Holocaust denial or its associated threats against Israel are any reason to curtail relations with Iran.

See my new article "Dialogue with Deniers" on NewMajority.com here.

German Business Practices Holocaust Denial...Denial?

2009-02-23T17:02:00.002-05:00

So it would seem from some recent remarks made by Helene Rang of Germany's Near and Middle East Association. See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

Waltz with Bashir: an "Israeli" Film?

2009-02-19T19:58:00.002-05:00

So they say. But a look at the film's financing suggests otherwise. See Part 2 of my two-part series on the Oscar-nominated "documation" on Pajamas Media here.

Waltz with Bashir: "Documation" as Anti-Israeli Propaganda

2009-02-18T17:05:00.003-05:00

The “animated documentary” Waltz for Bashir is up for an Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards. The film is based on a series of interviews with Israelis who are supposed to have been present in one capacity or another during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It purports to examine Israeli responsability for the infamous Sabra and Shatila massacre and various other "horrors of war." Some of the most damning testimony comes from one "Carmi Can’an". But, as so happens, said Carmi Can’an does not exist...

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Al-Aqsa TV Vice-Director on Gaza: No Peace with "the Jews"

2009-02-09T21:11:00.003-05:00

What are the chances of Israel achieving a durable peace with a Hamas-led Gaza? Some remarks made by the vice-director of Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV to Italian reporter Lorenzo Cremonesi provide an idea. See my new post on NewMajority.com here.

A Suicidal Proposition

2009-02-05T20:10:00.002-05:00

There has been much talk recently of sending Guantánamo detainees to Europe. That the idea could even be seriously considered in America provides a measure of how woefully misinformed or under-informed the American public has been about the nature and methods of international Jihadist activism. See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

Did Louis Michel Blame Hamas for Gaza Violence?

2009-02-04T19:07:00.002-05:00

Last week, numerous news outlets, following the lead of the AFP, reported that EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel had placed the blame for the violence in Gaza squarely on Hamas. Did he? Well, no. In fact, Louis Michel repeated the exact same charges against Israel that he had made two weeks earlier: accusing Israel of “flagrant violations of international humanitarian law” – otherwise known as war crimes. For the details, see my new article on Pajamas Media here.

UN "Torture Rapporteur" Manfred Nowak: Get Bush, Get Rumsfeld

2009-01-28T19:59:00.004-05:00

The Austrian law professor Manfred Nowak is the UN's Special Rapporteur on Torture. He first came to broad public attention in 2006, when he accused the US of practicing torture at Guantánamo Bay. I have written at length about Nowak's dubious intellectual pedigree in my 2006 essay "The Road to Condemning Guantanamo". Nowak did not take long, following the swearing-in of Barack Obama as new US president, to call for George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld to be put on trial for torture. For the details and background, see my new article on Pajamas Media here.

One Word

2009-01-24T16:56:00.002-05:00

...was conspicuously missing from Barack Obama's inaugural address. See my new article on "Obama and the End of the Democracy Agenda" on Pajamas Media here.

When the EU Parliament Approved of Guantanamo Bay

2009-01-22T21:36:00.004-05:00

Barack Obama today signed an executive order to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center. The widely expected move comes, of course, in response to the incessant barrage of “international” (in fact, mostly European) criticism of the center and of the Bush administration's policies towards the persons detained there. Once upon a time, however, the rationale behind the center and the denial of Geneva Convention protections to its inmates seemed entirely obvious - so obvious indeed the even the European Parliament recognized it.

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time? (Manfred Nowak vs. KSM on Guantanamo Detainees)

2009-01-14T17:00:00.002-05:00

The UN “torture rapporteur,” Manfred Nowak, says that many of the inmates being held at Guantánamo Bay were simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time” when they were taken prisoner in Afghanistan or Pakistan. But someone who presumably knows better disagrees: namely, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - or "KSM" - the former bin Laden lieutenant who is widely reputed to have been the “mastermind” of the 9/11 plot. See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

"Valkyrie" and the Historical Stauffenberg

2009-01-09T16:46:00.002-05:00

“Many Saw Evil,” the posters for the new Tom Cruise film Valkyrie proclaim, “But They Dared to Stop It.” But did would-be Hitler assassin, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, and his co-conspirators “see evil” in the Nazi regime? The historical record suggests otherwise. See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Dany Cohn-Bendit's Euro-Flag Hypocrisy

2009-01-07T18:53:00.003-05:00

Daniel Cohn-Bendit of the German Greens sparked a ruckus in the EU last month by turning up at Prague Castle, the seat of the Czech presidency, and suggesting that Czech President Vaclav Klaus ought to fly more EU flags around the place. But what flags are flying at Schloss Bellevue, the seat of the German presidency in Berlin? See my new article "Other People's Sovereignty: The EU Flag Controversy" on the website of the Hudson Institute New York here.

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard on German Biotech-Phobia

2009-01-06T18:07:00.005-05:00

Till Behrend of the German weekly Focus recently spoke with with the geneticist and Nobel Prize winner Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard about the sources of German opposition to genetically-modified foods. Biotech opponents like Greenpeace are "playing with human lives," Dr. Nüsslein-Volhard charges. For the full interview in my English translation, see Pajamas Media here.

German "Anti-Semitism Researchers" Turn to "Islamophobia"

2008-12-28T11:12:00.003-05:00

“Conceptions of the Jew as Enemy – Conceptions of the Muslim as Enemy” [Feindbild Jude - Feindbild Muslim]. This was the title of a conference held on December 8 at Berlin’s Center for Research on Anti-Semitism. It is, above all, the remarkable indifference to the reality of Islamic extremism that renders the Berlin center’s comparison so outrageous. See my discussion on Pajamas Media here.

What Bertelsmann Wants from Obama

2008-12-15T12:39:00.006-05:00

The Bertelsmann Foundation's “Briefing Book” for the incoming American president identifies seven “key” international issues. Perhaps more notable than those issues that made the cut is one that did not: terrorism. Whereas for the Bertelsmann authors “climate change” is an urgent global “threat” requiring immediate action, Islamic terror barely appears on the radar. Indeed, as an examination of the details of the “Briefing Book” shows, from the Bertelsmann perspective, it is as if the 9/11 attacks quite simply never occurred…

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

When is Torture Torture and When is Torture Not?

2008-12-05T18:52:00.002-05:00

Answer: When it occurs in Guantánamo, it is; and when it occurs in Frankfurt, it is not. See my new article in Policy Review magazine here.

The Incomparable Hans Blix: "I'm more worried about global warming"

2008-11-29T06:13:00.009-05:00

Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has an interview in the Friday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Here a translated excerpt:

Q. Many Arab countries want to obtain atomic energy. Are you worried about this?

A. Everything involves risks, including atomic energy. But in the long run I'm more worried about global warming than about weapons of mass destruction.

The FAZ identifies Blix as the chairman of an otherwise unspecified "Commission on Disarmament from Weapons of Mass Destruction ." Given Blix's views, one can well wonder if he is the right man for the job -- though the reference is apparently to a commission sponsored by the Swedish government that finished its work already in 2006.

The Ban That Wasn't: Germany and Al-Manar

2008-11-26T15:04:00.002-05:00

Reports of a German "ban" of Hezbollah's Al-Manar television have been greatly exaggerated. See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Bertelsmann's Man in the White House

2008-11-22T09:41:00.001-05:00

The Bertelsmann Foundation has helpfully prepared an 80-page "briefing book" on transatlantic relations for the incoming American president -- or what the foundation's German site also calls a "Europe-Handbook for Barack Obama". Bertelsmann can be sure that Obama will give close attention to its recommendations -- since, as so happens, the Bertelsmann Corporation is the President-elect's principal source of income. See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

German Students Lay Waste to Exhibit on Persecution of the Jews

2008-11-18T16:35:00.002-05:00

Only three days after the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, German students ostensibly protesting poor conditions in German schools for some reason layed waste to an exhibit on the persecution of the Jews. For the details, see my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Protecting Anti-Semites in Germany?

2008-11-09T05:19:00.002-05:00

A recent court ruling involving the author Henryk Broder will undoubtedly make it more difficult for Germans to discuss new forms of anti-Semitism. For the details, see my new article on Pajamas Media here.

More Euros for Obama

2008-11-03T15:45:00.002-05:00

For a bit more on the implications of Maria Laura Rodotà’s column in the Corriere della Sera, see my new article on Pajamas Media here. Interestingly, one commentator from Spain has already noted some similar remarks by a Spanish socialist politician who (unlike Rodotà) admitted to having made a contribution himself.

Euros for Obama?

2008-10-29T06:21:00.004-04:00

Has the Obama campaign made a regular practice of accepting illegal foreign campaign contributions, as the research of Kenneth Timmerman suggests? (See too here and here.) Well, if one is to judge by an article published earlier this month by the Italian columnist Maria Laura Rodotà, in certain European circles it would appear to be an open secret that it has. Moreover, Rodotà’s account of her being inundated by e-mails from the Obama campaign suggests that the campaign has not only been accepting illegal foreign campaign contributions, but that it has been actively soliciting them. Here is what Maria Laura Rodotà writes in her October 2 column in the major Italian daily Corriere della Sera [Italian link]:

Oh God. It's my fault. And your fault. And also the fault of that friend of yours who gave her e-mail to the Obama campaign. They have been writing us for a year, the Obama people – several times a day. They've sent us videos of Barack, they've responded to criticisms, they've laid down the party line, they've sold gadgets. They've invited us to interesting events like "Camp Obama" in California....At the foot of each e-mail, they'd ask for small donations, even just five dollars - which won't even get you breakfast here in downtown Milan. We never gave a cent. The cheapskates said "you can't do that," they'd be foreign contributions; others sent donations from fake American addresses. Real or fake, live or online, you felt part of a community of like-minded persons, all normal and liberal…

The "Torture Issue" and the Elections

2008-10-22T12:59:00.002-04:00

Would a President Obama seek torture charges against Bush administration officials? The Illinois Senator's eagerness to agree with John McCain on the "torture issue" suggests that he would. But what exactly is the "torture issue"? See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

"And They Called It Peace" (Martti Ahtisaari and the Nobel Peace Prize)

2008-10-14T06:22:00.002-04:00

The choice of Martti Ahtisaari as Nobel Peace laureate does more to undermine the traditional sense of the Nobel Peace Prize than any merely irrelevant choice like Al Gore. For by awarding the prize to Martti Ahtisaari, the Nobel committee has sent the message that to achieve peace, one should make war.

See my new article on Pajamas Media here.

Cologne Revisited: German Neo-Nazis View Islam as "Ally"

2008-10-10T04:35:00.002-04:00

When protesters in Cologne last month managed, with the blessing of the city government, to prevent the holding of an “Anti-Islamification Congress,” the cancellation of the event was widely hailed in the German and international media as a victory against “right-wing extremists” or, more simply put, “Nazis.” A new report from the domestic intelligence service of the German city-state of Hamburg shows, however, that actual neo-Nazi groups in Germany — i.e., groups that themselves embrace this description — in fact likewise opposed the “Anti-Islamification Congress” and are notably hostile to its sponsor, the “citizen’s movement” Pro-Cologne [Pro-Köln].

See my report on Pajamas Media here.

Frank-Walter is not Impressed

2008-09-27T08:54:00.003-04:00

While in NY for the opening of the UN General Assembly, German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, made a trip to Wall Street, the "epicenter of the world finanical crisis," as an article on the visit in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) puts it. "Steinmeier had never before been in the world's most important stock exchange," the FAZ notes, "He is surprised by how small and shabby it is."

This from the chancellor candidate of a party, the SPD, that will undoubtedly make the alleged evils of financial markets a central theme of its election campaign next year.

What is Publicis? The "French Connection" to a Palin Smear

2008-09-26T06:51:00.002-04:00

The Jawa Report’s outing of public relations man Ethan Winner as the poster of a professionally-produced anti-Sarah Palin smear video to youtube has brought the company Publicis to the American public’s attention. As Rusty Shackleford and his colleagues have shown, Winner and several other members of the Los Angeles-based Winner & Associates public relations firm – including company CEO Chuck Winner – appear to have been involved in a concerted effort to make the anti-Palin video “go viral” on the internet. Winner & Associates is a 100% owned subsidiary of Publicis.

And what is Publicis?...

Continue reading my new article on Pajamas Media here.

The "BND Affair" Redux

2008-09-23T12:30:00.001-04:00

What were two BND agents doing in Baghdad during the Iraq War in 2003? "Helping" the American army? Following the testimony of the two agents before the intelligence committee of the German Bundestag last week, we know in any case that they were in regular contact with the secret service of Saddam Hussein. See my post on World Politics Review here.

The First “Anti-Globalization” Protester?

2008-09-21T12:33:00.003-04:00

In my turbulent youth, nothing bothered me so much as having been born in a time that clearly would only erect its halls of fame for shopkeepers and civil servants. The waves of historical events appeared to have calmed, such that the future appeared really to belong only to “the peaceful competition among nations” – which is to say, a placid mutual swindling – with all violent methods of self-defense being excluded. Individual states began more and more to resemble commercial enterprises [Unternehmen], which sought to undercut one another and to snatch away clients and contracts from one another…. This development seemed not only to continue unabated, but (according to the universal recommendation) was even supposed to transform the whole world into one big department store….
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, volume I, chapter 5
(translated from the German edition of 1943, Verlag Franz Eher Nachf., p. 172)

It would have been entirely in the spirit of Hitler’s observations to have translated the last sentence: “This development seemed not only to continue unabated but (according to the universal recommendation) was even supposed to transform the whole world into one big shopping center.” But in order to avoid anachronism, I’ve translated Warenhaus literally as “department store.”

“Left-wing” German opponents of “globalization” profess shock and indignation when they find themselves joined in their protests by neo-Nazis. (See here, for instance, on last year’s anti-G8 protests in Germany.) Perhaps this is because the “left-wing” protesters do not in fact know anything about original Nazism. (It is worth considering that the de facto ban on the re-printing of Mein Kampf in Germany may have something to do with this.)

Animal Imagery: The SPD Grows Wings (and Fangs)

2008-09-16T14:15:00.000-04:00

The former chair of Germany's Social Democratic party (SPD), Kurt Beck, was forced out of his post a week ago in an internal party putsch that saw Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier designated the SPD candidate for the chancellorship and Franz Müntefering designated to return to the post of party chair. As reported in yesterday's edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) , Beck had this to say about the circumstances of his departure: "I do not want to and will not let myself be convinced that it is a good thing in politics when people adopt the behavior of a wolf pack toward one another."

As quoted in the same FAZ article, Beck's replacement Müntefering likewise resorted to animal imagery -- bizarrely mixed with a bad pun -- in calling for the quarrelsome "wings" [Flügel] of the party to come together. "One needs wings if one wants to move forward fast," Müntefering said, "But the wings have to know that there is a head in between them. Wings by themselves don't make any sense."

Müntefering, as so happens, has something of a history with dubious animal metaphors. It was the same Franz Müntefering who during his first stint as SPD party chair famously described financial investment groups as "locusts."

Schröder on Steinmeier: My Closest Collaborator

2008-09-14T15:22:00.000-04:00

Newly designated SPD candidate for the German chancellorship, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's chief of staff during most of the latter's time in office, as well as the coordinator of the German intelligence services. He is widely reputed to have been the éminence grise responsible for some of the Schröder government's most famous policies: including, notably, its highly orchestrated campaign against the Iraq War.

An article written by the former Chancellor for the next issue of the SPD party organ "Vörwarts" [Forward] was widely quoted in the German press last week (see here, for instance). In it, Schröder had this to say about his colleague: "In my entire life, there is no one with whom I have worked so closely and in such confidence." Schröder added that he is "proud" of his party for having chosen Steinmeier and that Steinmeier "has what it takes to be [hat das Zeug zum] Chancellor."

Is BHL a Fabulist?

2008-09-13T13:24:00.002-04:00

When war broke out between Russia and Georgia last month, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy -- or "BHL" as he is commonly known in France -- packed his bags and set off to Tbilisi. His ultimate aim was to get to the Georgian city of Gori, which had been the target of Russian aerial attacks and which was rumored to have been ravaged by Russian-affiliated paramilitaries. One week later, Lévy's account of his trip appeared in Le Monde in French and on the American website the Huffington Post in English. "It is a Georgian town," Lévy wrote about Gori, "And [the Russians] have burned it down, pillaged it, reduced it to a ghost town."

The problem, however, is that Lévy never in fact made it to Gori. See my new article "Reporting the Georgian War: Is Bernard-Henri Lévy a Fabulist?" on World Politics Review here.

Backup Site

2008-09-13T05:57:00.003-04:00

The new Trans-Int site has encountered technical problems and is presently undergoing repairs. In order to keep readers informed, I will be using this "old" Trans-Int blog in the meantime as backup site and posting links and whatnot here.

To the New Transatlantic Intelligencer

2005-08-23T08:49:00.000-04:00

As promised, here is the link to the new Transatlantic Intelligencer site:

www.trans-int.com .

Please bear with us. The site is still under construction. But you will be able to have a look, get an idea of how everything will work, and read a first edition of "Spots: a Round-Up of Notable Quotes and Curious Occurences in Europe" in the new trans-int blog.

Thanks for your continued interest in Trans-Int!

Forthcoming: A New Transatlantic Intelligencer Site and an Online Magazine

2005-08-05T15:26:00.000-04:00

August is as a rule a "slow news" month and it is especially so in continental Europe, where those long summer vacations mean that there is less opportunity for EU bureaucrats, French civil servants, German "political foundations" and the like to be creating momentous events. So, this seems like a good a time as any to take a much-needed pause from blogging.

Please check back here on Tuesday, August 23. What you'll find at that time is a single link that will take you to the new Transatlantic Intelligencer site. The new site will, of course, still include the blog and the more-or-less real time coverage of European and Transatlantic developments that I try to provide on it. But it will also include new elements: most notably a periodic Transatlantic Intelligencer magazine featuring substantial contributions from some of the most knowledgeable - and critical - European observers of European affairs: authors whom I frequently cite on Trans-Int, but whose work has hitherto only rarely, if at all, been made available in English

The first issue of the Transatlantic Intelligencer magazine will be devoted to the topic "Europe, Radical Islam, and the Middle East Conflict".

Among other contributions, it will include:

Paul Landau writing on "Islamic 'Reformism' and Jihad: On the Discourse of Tariq Ramadan";

Matthias Küntzel on the potential legacy of Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Germany's "Red-Green" Coalition to Middle East diplomacy;

Thomas von der Osten-Sacken and Thomas Uwer on the understanding and sympathy diplayed by the "anti-globalization" left for violent jihad;

and yours truly on the latest report of the French Consultative Commission on Human Rights and what it tells us about the extent of anti-Semitism and "Islamophobia" in contemporary France.

Many thanks for your continued interest in Trans-Int.

Please mark your calendars and come back on August 23rd to get to know the new site!

(Until then, and as always, newcomers are invited to check out the dossiers of popular topics previously covered on Trans-Int that are available a bit further down in the sidebar.)

Reading Notes: Jeremy Rabkin's "Law Without Nations?"

2005-08-03T01:41:00.000-04:00

In the introduction to his new book Law Without Nations? Why Constitutional Government Requires Sovereign States,

Jeremy Rabkin describes the aim of his volume as follows: “to explain why American constitutional traditions make it hard for the United States to embrace schemes of global governance which find so much favor in other countries, particularly in western Europe”.

Underscoring why this approach to current transatlantic disputes might be of particular interest, he writes: “it is ultimately the Constitution that makes the United States a nation”. This phrase – which will, I think, seem more or less self-evident to Americans – nonetheless gives cause to pause, since precisely in its self-evidence it highlights the chasm separating the essentially political conception of nationhood underlying the American order from the “völkisch” or ethnic conception that has been and remains fundamental in Germany and is becoming increasingly prevalent throughout Europe. Not only would the claim that “it is ultimately the Constitution that makes Germany a nation” not be self-evident – though it only came into being in 1949, the current Federal Republic of Germany, nonetheless, considers itself to be the legal successor of the 2nd or Wilhelmine German Reich, which pre-dates even the Weimar constitution – but the very phrase would in German seem not entirely colloquial. In the sense of nationhood proper to German tradition, it is fundamentally “the” Germans (or “the Americans” or “the Czechs”, etc.) that are a nation. This is shown by, among other things, the large interchangeability in German usage of the Germanic word Volk and the Latinate Nation (see, for instance, Fichte’s famous Addresses to the German Nation [Reden an die deutsche Nation]. Germany is – “merely” – a state. (And, in still more remote traditions, it not even that, but only the territory traditionally or predominantly inhabited by “the Germans”.)

The undermining of constitutional government by what Rabkin calls “Eurogovernance” might have something to do with the retreat of the political conception of nationhood before the “völkisch” conception that is so conspicuous in Europe nowadays. For political nationhood is, in effect – and as Jeremy Rabkin’s remark suggests – a function of constitutional government. The “people” or “nation” in a political sense is just the totality of those who under a given constitution are entitled either to exercise legitimate authority or to select those who do. As Rabkin’s presentation makes clear, however, “Eurogovernance” more closely resembles (and seemingly draws its inspiration from) imperial schemes of government (i.e. in the medieval European sense of “imperial”) that subject a multiplicity of “peoples” – hence, necessarily, “peoples” in a “pre-political” or, in effect, ethnic sense – to a common authority of which they are not the source.

Jeremy Rabkin’s book will be of great interest to all Europeans (and others) of good faith who want to discover the principled basis for the American rejection of contemporary European “multilateralism” – an expression which has become, in effect, just a buzzword for Eurogovernance writ large and applied to the entire planet. (In the literal sense of the expression, American foreign policy is, of course, already “multilateral”, notwithstanding the fact that the leading continental European powers – i.e. those powers who most frequently accuse the US of “unilateralism” – have not of late been privileged partners.) It is especially highly recommended for Americans who want to understand better what they stand to lose if they take the path of least resistance – i.e. the path recommended with increasing virulence by most of the leadership of the Democrat Party nowadays – and concede to European demands for the US to join European-inspired "global governance" schemes like the Kyoto Protocol or the International Criminal Court.

Who are You Calling "Pro-Palestinian"?

2005-08-01T06:19:00.000-04:00

(Note: For background, see "Franco-Israeli Détente?".)

Le Monde devoted the editorial in its weekend edition (dated 31 July-1 August) to Ariel Sharon's visit to Paris and, like myself or Emmanuel of Politique arabe de la France, attempted to decipher the reasons for the apparent softening of the French line toward Israel. According to the editors of Le Monde, the "essential reason" lies in the "image" that France has in Israel of being "a partisan country - systematically pro-Palestinian - and even anti-Semitic." This "image" is, the unsigned editorial continues, "largely a caricature" - or rather "of course [bien sûr] largely a caricature" - but it is "the Israeli perception" and this perception must be changed if France is to have influence in Middle East diplomacy.

Apparently without intended irony, the editorial concludes:

To mediate, one has to have the confidence of all the parties. From this point of view, the new tone between Paris and Jerusalem is good news for the Palestinians.

Franco-Israeli Détente?: Emmanuel Responds

2005-08-01T06:07:00.000-04:00

On Thursday, in "Franco-Israeli Détente?", I wrote on Ariel Sharon's visit to Paris and took issue with the relatively optimistic prognosis for Franco-Israeli relations of one of the web's sharpest observers of French Middle East policy, Emmanuel of the French-language blog Politique arabe de la France. Emmanuel's response follows:

1) Both men (Chirac and Sharon) have of course a hidden agenda and are posturing for local consumption: I do not deny that. This is true for Chirac who gets a good grade from Sharon on his fight against anti-Semitism (on which he is, I believe, absolutely sincere). You are right, however, in saying that anti-Semitism in France is far from a settled matter. Sharon, for his part, also gets some political benefit at home by receiving such honors from one of the most pro-Arab heads of state in the world.

2) I do believe also that the détente has more profound reasons that are closely related to France's weakening and Chirac's low personal standing (both at home and in Europe where he is about to lose his foremost ally in the person of German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder). Sharon is keen on turning this weakness to his own benefit. True, France is still pro-Palestinian. What I am saying in my analysis is that its pro-Palestinianism cannot afford to be relentless any longer: France just cannot pay such a high price in terms of internal destabilization. Sharon's disengagement plan and Arafat's death have given France an opportunity to adopt a much needed more balanced stance on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Now France wants to capitalize on this new stance by taking on a more important role in the peace process. Never underestimate the passion that French leaders have regarding the place and rank of their country in the world: this is the most sensitive issue of all (in this sense, the French political class is overwhelmingly Gaullist).

You cannot blame France for not being totally aligned with Israel : even the US is not. But when things get more serious, at the time of the real bargaining, I am now convinced that France will be willing to compromise on its positions and will push the Palestinians to do so as well. This is, I believe, why Sharon is willing to give a weakened France a stronger role : it still has a lot of influence in the Arab world and Sharon wants this influence to work in his favor. Spending 3 days with the guy who gave arch-enemy Yasser Arafat the funeral of a head of State is worth it.

American "Wolves" and German Shepherds?: The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Iraqi Reconstruction

2005-07-29T08:18:00.000-04:00

Regular readers of Trans-Int will remember the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES): the publicly-funded foundation of the German Social Democratic Party that disposes of an annual budget of some 109 million euro. The annual budget of the National Endowment for Democracy, from which both of the analogous American party foundations - The National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) - draw their federal funding, was recently increased to $80 million. At current exchange rates, the budget of the FES alone is still nearly twice this amount. As previously noted on Trans-Int, no less an authority than former German President Roman Herzog has described Germany's publicly-funded political foundations - of which there is one for each party represented in the German parliament - as "the most effective and reliable instrument of German foreign policy". Apparently, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung is functioning as such in the context of Iraqi reconstruction, with German Social Democracy taking on the airs of the "protector" of the ostensibly aggrieved Sunni minority in its battle against the American "occupier".

Thus, some weeks ago the FES hosted a "round table" on the Iraqi Constitution in Amman, Jordan. One of the participants was Kamal Allou, a Sunni representative on the constitutional committee of the Iraqi National Assembly. Mr. Allou seems to have appreciated his no doubt all-expense-paid visit to Amman and the support offered by his German hosts. The following is from yesterday's edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung [link in German]:

With their propositions concerning the constitution, the Germans count in the meanwhile as independent observers. Some even regard them as the guarantee that, as Mr. Allou says, "we won't completely have the rug pulled out from under us by the Americans". "The occupiers are like wolves. But what we need are shepherds."

(Note: For general background on the FES [including the source of the above-cited Herzog quote], see "Geert Ahrens, German Foundations, and 'Conspiracy Theories'". On the FES and the NDI, see "Who Supports the National Democratic Institute?"; and on the - outside Germany - little-known role of the FES in Ukraine's "Orange Revolution", see "Who Supports Yushchenko?: Leftist Fanatasies and German Realities".)

Franco-Israeli Détente?

2005-07-28T11:40:00.000-04:00

Ariel Sharon, in Paris for three days of talks, met with French president Jacques Chirac yesterday and both leaders marked the occasion by emitting conspicuously friendly noises. The word in the traditional French media is that Franco-Israeli relations have entered a period of “warming”. Emmanuel of Politique arabe de la France, one of the sharpest observers of French Middle East Policy on the web, believes it might just be so and even suggests that in the apparent rapprochement is to be seen the beginning of “The End of France’s Relentlessly Pro-Palestinian Policy” [link in French]. Here is the core of Emmanuel’s explanation:

The turning point was the second Intifada. Of course, France took the side of the Palestinians in this ferocious war of attrition.

But for the first time France’s relentless pro-Palestinianism had disastrous consequences for France itself. Encouraged by the French positions, carried away by the hatred of Sharon expressed in the medias, many French Arabs permitted themselves to pass over… to an active anti-Semitism. There was an explosion of anti-Semitic incidents, hundred of French Jews were attacked, synagogues were set on fire, etc…

Paradoxically, it was these wretched creatures – who so thoroughly identified with the Palestinians – who finished off the extremist pro-Palestinianism of French policy.

The great majority of French political leaders and journalists recognized the outrage that the explosion of anti-Semitism represented for France: it was unacceptable that French citizens were attacked in this way; France stood accused, notably in the United States; one feared a clash between [religious] communities. They reacted firmly and the attitude of the French government, notably, has been exemplary, as Sharon acknowledged today [yesterday]….

I’m afraid I do not share the optimism of Emmanuel’s assessment. There are important indices suggesting that the entire visit is being exploited by the French government as a publicity stunt designed precisely to highlight the alleged “success” of its supposed efforts to combat anti-Semitism. Thus, just one day before Sharon’s arrival in Paris, the French Ministry of the Interior announced that anti-Semitic incidents in France had fallen by some 48% by comparison to the first-half of 2004. Incidentally, the official organism charged with collecting such statistics – the Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) – does not publish any mid-year report, so we have to take this piece of information on faith. In any case, the release of the statistic had the presumably desired effect, it being cited in virtually all the reporting on Sharon’s visit, including – which is no doubt of greatest importance for the French government – in the English language reports. (See, for instance, this Reuters article.) Following his meeting with Chirac, Ariel Sharon dutifully praised France’s “very decided combat against anti-Semitism” and even suggested that France could be a “model” for other countries in the matter.

But the problem with all this diplomatic good cheer is that the 48% drop in anti-Semitic incidents represents a highly relative “success” – notably in light of the fact that the first half of 2004 saw a massive spike in such incidents (which already were on the decline again in the second half of 2004). This is to say that with the 48% drop, what Emmanuel calls “active anti-Semitism” in France has merely returned to the already alarmingly high level of 2003 (during which, according to the official statistics, some 601 such incidents were recorded). Moreover, there is nothing to suggest that the recent decline has anything to do with any policy of the French government. For the last five years, since the start of the second Intifada, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in France, although showing an overall rising tendency, has oscillated from year to year. These oscillations presumably reflect changes in the more general political climate and not any specific measures taken by the government. Below is a relevant chart taken from the CNCDH’s latest yearly report [pdf-file; link in French]. The grey bar represents anti-Semitic incidents; the black bar, other racist incidents.

It is also worth noting that in his official declaration prior to the meeting with Sharon, Jacques Chirac welcomed the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, but placed the latter within the framework of the "road map". Ariel Sharon, by contrast, insists that the "road map" cannot even begin to be applied until "there is a total stop to terrorism" (these his words in a recent interview with Le Monde). The withdrawal from Gaza thus forms part of a "preliminary phase". Chirac's divergence from Sharon on this point is more than just a nuance. It expresses a continuing indulgence of Palestinian terror on the part of Chirac and the French government - who, of course, can far more easily afford such indulgence than Ariel Sharon and the Israelis.

Yogurt Fever: Epilogue

2005-07-27T09:18:00.000-04:00

On Monday, the French Financial Market Authority (AMF) announced that it had received assurances from the PepsiCo Corporation that, contrary to widespread rumors, the latter was not in fact preparing a takeover bid for Danone. The announcement seems to have brought to a close France’s recent bout of “Yogurt Fever”. Indeed, already before the announcement, certain French media – notably Le Figaro – had regained lucidity and were posing skeptical questions about the rumored bid and even about the origins of the rumor itself. Perhaps because somewhat fevered is its normal condition, the temperature at Le Monde, however, evidently remains high. Thus the opening of a brief article on the affair in yesterday’s edition (dated 27 July):

After a week of reactions by the political class to the possibility of a stock market raid by PepsiCo on Danone, a number of questions remain unanswered. On Monday, 25 July, the latter issued a communiqué indicating that it “took note” of the declaration by the American group to the Financial Market Authority (AFM). PepsiCo does not envisage “at the moment an operation of this sort” with respect to the jewel of the French foodstuffs industry.

Note the use of the expression “stock market raid” in the opening sentence: a term which, as I pointed out in “Yogurt is a Strategic Industry”, would be factually inappropriate even supposing that PepsiCo was preparing an offer and hence only serves here to dramatize. Note too the description of Danone as a “jewel” – fleuron (literally, “floweret”) – of French industry. It will be recalled that this was the expression used by French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin last Wednesday in announcing the intention of the French government to “defend” Danone. If Le Monde would like to retain any credibility, perhaps it should make efforts to take a bit of distance from the Quai d’Orsay – or at least to appear to do so.

The Le Monde article goes on to repeat a rumor according to which an unnamed financial establishment is supposed to have purchased 3% of Danone shares on behalf of PepsiCo: “a purchase that would have permitted…the American group to deny… having acquired such an interest, since, in effect, it is not PepsiCo that held them!” The exclamation point is apparently Le Monde’s manner of expressing wonderment at “Anglo-Saxon” deceitfulness. The cited source for this story?: an unnamed “person close to Danone”.

In the meanwhile, following the request of Colette Neuville, President of the Association for the Defense of Minority Shareholders (ADAM), the Financial Market Authority has opened an inquiry into a possible manipulation of the Danone stock price. Interviewed last week by the cable news channel I-Télé, Ms. Neuville had the audacity to note that a PepsiCo bid for Danone would be in the interest of Danone shareholders. Alluding to the rumored bid and the fevered response to it by the French government and in the media, Ms. Neuville referred to a “campaign of intoxication”.

Charm Offensive

2005-07-26T10:22:00.000-04:00

What better time than a bombing attack in a European capital for a charm offensive by the would-be preacher of a “moderate” European Islam, Tariq Ramadan? Since, the July 7 London bombings, Tariq Ramadan has been making the rounds of the press, dutifully mouthing words well-chosen to make clear his, let’s say for the moment, “rejection” of the attacks. His latest stop, as my friends at EURSOC bring to my attention, is the UK’s Independent, which yesterday ran an interview with Ramadan. The interview is also called a “profile” by the Independent: a detail which is interesting, since ordinarily a “profile” – or at least one that aimed at objectivity – should be based on something other than just the subject’s own words. It is prefaced by the knowing observation that another UK paper, the Evening Standard, had lately published a piece on Ramadan that “managed in the space of just 10 short lines to include no less than four mistakes”. The Independent’s reporter Paul Vallely does not deign to tell us what three of the “no less than four” mistakes were, but he does at least specify the fourth and, in his words, “most pernicious”: viz. [the claim that] “Professor Ramadan condoned suicide bombings when he vehemently condemns them.”

The insertion of the superfluous qualifier “vehemently” is symptomatic of the sort of partisanship under cover of journalism that has become so common of late in UK papers like The Independent or The Guardian and of which the NYTimes is, of course, in the US the unrivaled champion. (Indeed, the Independent’s Ramadan interview/profile resembles nothing so much as the Ramadan interview/profile published last October by the NYTimes and whose claims I examined in detail in my “Tariq Ramadan, Non-Violent Man of Peace”.) At what point, after all, has the threshold of “vehemence” been reached? Must visible steam be perceptible escaping from the ears? The real question is simply whether Tariq Ramadan has condemned suicide attacks or not. And to this question, contrary to the impression given by the Independent, there is no simple answer. It is entirely possible, furthermore, that Mr. Ramadan – who is nothing if not a master of nuance – condemns such attacks in certain instances and does not condemn or even condones them in others.

Now, it is true that Mr. Ramadan took the occasion of the London bombings to issue a statement on his personal website with the title “To Condemn Absolutely”. “Our condemnation is, once again, absolute,” he wrote. Mr. Ramadan’s choice to lend emphasis to his condemnation of the attacks with the qualifier “absolute” itself represents an interesting and revealing rhetorical strategy. Is there such a thing as a “relative” condemnation? The statement “our condemnation is absolute” – I am not sure for whom besides himself Mr. Ramadan claims to be speaking – is logically equivalent to “our condemnation is a condemnation”, which is to say, it is not really a statement at all but merely an allusion to another (possible) statement: i.e., “we condemn x”, with x in this case being the London bombings. But that Mr. Ramadan should unambiguously condemn a terrorist attack is worthy of note and he has good reason to want to to call attention to the fact - because in the past he has precisely not been able to bring himself to do so. In effect, Mr. Ramadan's explicit condemnation of the attacks is – contrary to the impression created by the adverbial phrase “once again”, which thus has a certain guilty quality (“once again”: i.e. at least this time) – something of a novelty.

Thus, as cited by Daniel Pipes and previously discussed in my “Tariq Ramadan, Non-Violent Man of Peace”, when Mr. Ramadan was once asked about whether it is acceptable for Palestinian militants to kill Israeli children since they will someday become soldiers as adults, he responded:

I don't believe that an eight year old child is a soldier. These acts are condemnable; therefore one has to condemn them in themselves. But I say to the international community that they are contextually explicable, and not justifiable. What does this mean? It means that the international community today has placed the Palestinians in a situation where they are delivered [to? - JR] political oppression, which explains (not justifying it) that at a certain point people say: we don't have arms, we don't have anything, and so we cannot do anything other than this. It is contextually explicable but morally condemnable.

As I noted in my earlier post:

Despite the fact that Tariq Ramadan is careful here to use repeatedly the word "condemn" and its variants, a "condemnation" which treats the ostensibly "condemnable" acts as, in effect, inevitable - and remember what is at issue is the assassination of children - is clearly not in fact a condemnation, since the very notion of condemning some act implies that the agent who performed it could have acted otherwise. It is also notable in this quote that Mr. Ramadan never says in the first person that he himself condemns the acts in question, but merely that in the abstract they are "condemnable" and that "one" has to condemn them.

The fact that Mr. Ramadan speaks of “our condemnation” in connection with the London attacks does, then, represent a certain evolution in his discourse. ("Our condemnation" presumably includes also his condemnation of the attacks, though it its interesting that Mr. Ramadan chooses here to efface his own individual responsibility for his words in imputing some collective response to his presumed "community": whether the latter be understood - rather implausibly under the circumstances - as all Muslims or, say, if tautologically, as all “like-minded" Muslims.) Indeed in his statement, as cited by The Independent, he even says “The authors of such acts are criminals and we cannot accept or listen to their probable justifications in the name of an ideology, a religion or a political cause” - a position which would seem to exclude finding at least the London bombings “contextually explicable”.

But while Mr. Ramadan ostentatiously prohibits the mere act of “listening to” the "probable justifications" of the London attacks among his chosen "community" ("we cannot accept or listen to..."), he tacitly recommends doing precisely the opposite - and then some - when addressing the larger European public: viz, not only "listening to" their justifications, but even practically taking the latter into account. And so the attacks must indeed be "contextually explicable", after all.

Thus, in an interview that Mr. Ramadan gave to Global Viewpoint nine days after the bombings (and that has since appeared translated into German in Die Welt), he notes:

Tony Blair has said it is up to the Muslims to do something about stopping these killers that came from their communities. He is partly right, as I have said.
But the situation we face today is like that of a family. When a kid does wrong, his two parents are also responsible. These kids that committed the London bombings were born in Europe. They are not just the sons of Muslims, but also the sons of European society. One parent is the Muslim community, and it needs to do something; the other parent is European society, and it needs to do something.
We need to ask what fault lies with the European parent with respect to the failures of social integration or with respect to supporting the war in Iraq, which millions and millions of Europeans opposed.

Since the explicit context for these remarks is what has do be done by European governments to avoid further attacks, these words amount to an implicit threat: either change your policies - notably, as concerns Iraq - or the attacks will continue. Once again - even after he has upgraded it to an "absolute" status by comparison to his earlier evasive or not-quite "condemnations" - Mr. Ramadan’s “condemnation” of the London bombings does not bear scrutiny. Although in logic the rule of non-contradiction applies, Tariq Ramadan is quite capable of condemning and not condemning at the same time.

Banalizing Terror

2005-07-25T13:36:00.000-04:00

The above-the-crease headline in today's edition of Le Monde (dated 26 July):

"Governments faced with the challenge of terrorist harassment" [Les gouvernements au défi du harcèlement terroriste].

Yes, the word chosen by Le Monde is « harassment »: harcèlement in French - the same word that would be used, for instance, for sexual harassment in the workplace.