FLASH
Shkruar nga Goffredo Buccini
Since we failed in 2005 to draft a Constitution desired by our people, settling instead for a Treaty negotiated by our governments, the EU has been on a path to paralysis...
The Palestinian cause seems to appeal to young Westerners, much as Vietnam did to their grandparents. And it would be a mistake to reduce the motivations of so many idealists to the shameful folly of those who destroyed Milan in the name of Gaza. After all, the most classic asymmetric war has been going on in the troubled Strip for two years.
In this type of conflict, a hypertechnological warrior, often indifferent to collateral damage, faces someone who uses his popularity as a hybrid weapon, hiding among women and children and thus making the enemy pay for their deaths.
It is an automatic, almost natural choice for many people, especially Europeans, raised in a culture of human rights. And above all, the choice of side is made by young people, such and so visible is the suffering inflicted on Palestinian civilians. One side holds the weaker side: dominant on the military front, in the court of conscience the giant always loses; It was the same for America's "dirty war" against the Ho Chi Minh tunnels.
Less natural is the push by many Western leaders, and specifically the major European nations, towards recognizing the State of Palestine. This is a very challenging stance in terms of alliances and international relations. Because ultimately, it is the stance of some important EU countries that is profoundly changing the geopolitical boundaries between the West and the so-called global South.
A significant part of the EU, including the UK, has decided to break the deadlock and grant statehood to those fragmented and bloody territories. Palestine lacks many of the minimum characteristics for a state. But we too were once simply a “geographical expression”, albeit the home of a civilization that had shaped the world. Even the national home of the Jews in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 was an idea, albeit one rooted in a thousand years of history. Therefore, Paolo Giordano is undoubtedly right when, in these columns, he explains that the historical direction has been set. Direction without action becomes simply a good intention. And the path of Europe has been paved with good intentions, at least since the early 2000s.
Since we failed in 2005 to draft a Constitution desired by our people, settling instead for a Treaty negotiated by our governments, the EU has been on the road to paralysis. A wry liberal like Belgian Guy Verhofstadt has labeled its terrible contradictions as “announcement politics”: which consists of “the constant promotion of grand objectives and projects without the necessary means to achieve them.”
Now, the turn in Palestine unfortunately seems to fit precisely this ruthless definition. Faced with the inhuman images of starvation among the small inhabitants of Gaza, the destruction of Gaza City stone by stone and the forced exodus of its inhabitants, we say to ourselves: something must be done! Alas, Europe, which remains an economic giant but a political dwarf due to its reluctance to adopt a good common defense and a single diplomatic strategy, can do nothing. So? We must make a gesture! A gesture that represents, in fact, a goal. And one that cleanses us from the sin of inaction.
Unfortunately, gestures, especially ill-conceived ones, can be accidental. You don't have to be a Trump supporter to realize that Hamas, now jubilant, will present itself to its compatriots as the only entity to have achieved such a powerful political outcome while still holding a significant number of hostages captured in the October 7th pogrom.
This will not change the plight of Gazans or even Palestinians in the West Bank: the former are bombed relentlessly and the latter are under military occupation. It will certainly raise expectations: that electricity will reach Hebron and that a work permit will be required for employment; that a clinic in Bethlehem will have medicine and equipment; that a degree earned in Nablus will be worth something beyond IDF checkpoints. These expectations are likely to be dashed, generating new anger and the eventual downfall of Abu Mazen’s PA.
On the Israeli side, it is already clear that the messianic hawks in Netanyahu's cabinet are moving forward. Itamar Ben-Gvir, a security minister with some fifty criminal records for extremism, is calling for the immediate annexation of the West Bank as revenge. But even a centrist like Naftali Bennett sums up Israel's indifference to international isolation with a joke: "Between seeing my children alive and being unpopular, and seeing them dead and being loved by the world, I would rather be unpopular." Anyone who fails to understand this decision, dramatic but transversal for Israeli society, risks missing the point. Of course, the Europeans will increasingly hit Israel economically, but this will push Israelis ever deeper into the arms of radical Trumpism.
It is not so incomprehensible, then, that the Italian and German governments are so cautious about recognizing a statehood that offers neither common authority, nor uniform jurisdiction, nor a defined territory, nor an independent economy: nothing but chaos. The consequences of this process are far from predictable. Recognizing Palestine today can undoubtedly help us sleep more soundly. But perhaps the uncontrollable desire suggests that it will help Palestinians and Israelis wake up to a better tomorrow./ Adapted from “Pamphlet” by “Corriere Della Sera”
Lini një Përgjigje