I’m trying to picture Sweeden trying to mediate a dispute between India and Pakistan.
Somehow it involves an Ikea.
The EU… The EU isn’t going to be able to do anything important foreign policy wise for a few years at the earliest. Mainly, they lack the solid backing of the countries that form it. The head deligates of the EU (for lack of a better term) are directly controlled by the countries they are from, and as such lack the ability to exert pressure back to their nations. Which means, they can make all the condemnations they desire, but lack the military base which is required for what they say to have any effect.
That make sense? About the 9th time I’ve tried to explain it. (silly editing)
Yes they can do economic sanctions, because the EU countries gave the EU power over trade, but they have no ceeded any military/political power. So as such, the EU has roughly the political might of Microsoft. (not really)
But we’ll NEVER see economic sanctions. Why? Trade. Israel needs things, they have money. NATO nations can make a LOT of money selling Israel weapons. This all goes back to how the EU works (more or less). Since the EU deligates have no political power themselves (I believe all of them are appointed by their parent governments), they are directly controled by the elected officials. Which means standard big buisness practices come into play. Defense contractors wield a lot of power and so do other large industries. And lets face it, Israel is cut off from trading with its neighbors.
So what I’m getting at with the EU sanctions: They’ll probably never happen, too many of the EU memeber governments see very good reasons to contine to trade with Israel. And since the EU has SO little power over its member governments whatever the EU decides will be totally impotent.
<gah> This is if I’m understanding everything correctly.
Lets keep in mind that one of the key factors in being able to play a role in international affairs is being able to exert your will in matters. Malta doesn’t exactly have the money or military or any sort of leverage to MAKE people do what they say. You need to have a stick to make people do things sometime, people on the national level don’t listen to reason.
If we take major countries in the world individually you probably don’t have very many who can play negotiator in the mideast. A lot of europe has had a lot of influx of middle eastern peoples over the years, and some countries haven’t had a good history with the Jewish people either.
Look at what’s happening in France. Small Jewish population, lots of Middle Eastern people… I think there is some sort of balancing act going on… On one hand you have new voters who support the Palestinians and feel for their cause and on the other hand you have the population who remember the horrors of WWII. You side with one side, the other side condems you the other side and there is the subtle suggestion that the terrorism in Israel can be experienced at home.
So what do you do as a political leader?
Hell, look at germany. Look at the laws they have in place since WWII… Then look at some of their problems they’ve had with immigrants and what not…
Some of the smaller european nations, The Netherlands and Denmark don’t have the same problems as England, Germany and France do. But (no offense) they lack the ability to force their will on others. Economic embargos won’t work, and as Coldfire said, sending their F16’s wouldn’t work either.
So what are we left with?
The US has a long history in the region, supportig factions here trying to overthrow a government there. And we’ve been a long time supporter of Israel. Add those two things together and you’ve got everyone in the region screaming at us for a variety of reasons.
The US also has the political and economic ability to exert its will.
The only other major power that played in the middle east was Russia… Who no longer has the ability to. They can’t even exert pressure with arms sales they need money so badly.
As to the comments about Oil interests…
Someone brought up alternative energy sources.
Who is the MOST afraid of the US developing that?
Not the oil companies. I expect that most of them have been banking on the eventual shift from Oil to something else as an energy source. They’ve had years to prepair.
Try the Oil Producing countries.
What would happen to the Saudi government if suddenly the US shifted to using power cells and other forms of hydrogen to generate power and fuel our cars? They’d collapse.
Sure we’d need SOME oil for manufacturing purposes. But we’d probably be buying it at 5% of the current price.
There isn’t a legacy of democracy in that part of the world, there is a history of individuals taking the discontent of the population and using it for their own political gain. When the people of many middle eastern countries suddenly see their oil derived weath disappear, how do you think they’d respond?
Arrg I’m out of thoughts.
Dunno if what I said was right, or even made sense.
