Raymond Cohen on Israel in the EU

Dave Winer suggested that I was male-bashing in my blog of yesterday, which is why today I’m thinking about Israel in the European Union. Non-sequiter? Not quite. Dave’s comment got me thinking about a terrific political science course I took at UBC as an undergraduate in the early 80s. It was taught by a visiting Israeli professor, Raymond Cohen, who had written a book called Threat Perception in International Relations. It’s been years since I read the book, but I recall that it was a very smart inquiry into how our perceptions — on a nation-state level — influence policies. See, I thought that Dave was perceiving something that I wasn’t really saying: I think I was, in part, system-bashing, but not male-bashing. (Disclaimer: I don’t think that there is a state of Dave — or a state of Yule — here. I guess it’s just that men saying women are male-bashing conjures up threat perception issues.. ;-). )

Professor Cohen was a sharp lecturer, and he ran a tense tutorial. There were students who supported the PLO, and it was clear that Raymond Cohen, who seemed hawkishly pro-Israel, was more than impatient with any milquetoast Canadian students who were going to argue Israeli security concerns with him. Hence, imagine my surprise when, looking for his book online, I found that he spoke to the European Parliament in Brussels in March 2002 in support of Israeli membership in the EU. His speech was called Israel: A Return to Europe?

(N.B.: You can find the speech also on the website of the Transnational Radical Party, which it seems sponsored the motion before the EU. However, it’s impossible to link to individual pages directly on their site since they all have the same URL; hence, you need to go to the main page, scroll down to the “Israel in The E.U. – special page” section, click on that and then scroll on the page that opens to Cohen’s link. The “special page” link includes lots more information, photos of the meetings, backgrounders.)

I don’t remember hearing anything about EU membership for Israel last year, but perhaps I wasn’t paying attention. Today I looked around a bit more on Google, and realized that it’s a debated, ridiculed, and championed topic. I wonder what other people have heard about it, what they think? Is this a completely fringe phenomenon? Cohen’s speech is beautiful and very convincing — I’m ready to endorse it. Naturally, some of the opposition points out that the whole idea is like flying pigs: ain’t gonna happen, what’s to become of the law of return, and so on and so forth. What do other people think?

Some quotes from Raymond Cohen’s speech:

“At present, Israelis are locked into a conventional nationalist and strategic mindset more suited to the nineteenth than to the twenty-first century,” but “the prospect of Israel’s entry into Europe could encourage moderate forces, rejuvenate public discourse, break the near-monopoly of chauvinist ideas, and provide a set of incentives for creative thinking in the peace process. ” At present, Cohen continues, “the agenda of Israel politics is almost completely dominated by Revisionist ideas reinforced by fundamentalist and mystical religious themes. Fearful stereotypes from the Diaspora have also resurfaced. Settlers in the occupied territories are viewed as the heroic heirs of the Zionist pioneers. Occupation and settlement are presented as expressions of a sacrosanct historical right and essential to Israel’s survival. The Palestinians are anathematized as a reincarnation of Amalek, the quintessential enemy of the Jewish people from time immemorial. Critical external agencies, such as the European Union, are viewed with suspicion as a modern version of the Poritz, the Jews’ East European overlord and oppressor.”

What would inclusion in the EU bring into the mix? “…the promise of Israel’s inclusion in the European Union would transform a disheartening anticipation of national contraction and vulnerability into a more confident prospect of incorporation into a wider community of nations. Psychology is everything in a nation’s self-image and identity.” With that last sentence, Cohen shows that his research into threat perception still productively informs his thinking.

As for the Transnational Radical Party: can someone enlighten me as to who they are? Their website indicates pre-Iraq War support for Saddam’s removal; they are against the prohibition on drugs; their membership is mostly Italian and Albanian, but growing; Mussolini’s granddaughter is a member, but so are some leftwingers; they sponsored the movement to get Israel into the EU; and their plan is to get members of Parliament in all countries across the globe to join their group so that these members can then vote, in concert, on important global issues: a transnational, nearly virtual fifth column turned toward the good?

Questions upon questions, and all because Dave said I was male-bashing…. PS: Later today I’ll write a conciliatory response in yesterday’s comment box. Male-bashing, moi? Nah.