Following Germany’s uncritical support for Washington and Jerusalem

by wsws (reposted)

Sat, Jul 22, 2006 8:21AM

In the past two weeks, a major shift has taken place in German and European foreign policy. Under conditions where European nations are completely unable to develop a unified stance in opposition to the US, European leaders have decided to ditch their former reservations over the illegal US war against Iraq and now back the present bloody offensive by Israel against the Palestinian territories and Lebanon—an offensive planned and carried out in the closest consultation with the Pentagon. The necessary groundwork for such a shift in policy has been conducted in the course of a debate carried out in the German press, and in particular in Germany’s so-called “quality” newspapers.

During the past week, many of Germany’s most widely read and influential newspapers have opened their pages to pro-Israeli columnists, and in many articles and commentaries have turned reality on its head by presenting the nationalist Hamas and Hezbollah movements as the aggressor parties in the Middle East, with the Israeli army and government playing the part of the offended victim doing its best to defend itself.

As if the US-initiated catastrophe in Iraq had never taken place, a number of the German columnists now either concede that nothing can be done to prevent the growing involvement of the American military in the conflict, or actively call for the intervention by the US in the region. Not content with freeing Israel from any responsibility, a number of German papers then go to great lengths to demonstrate that the real source of the violence in Lebanon and Gaza is to be found in Damascus and Teheran.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/germ-j22.shtml

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