(Telegraph-UK) Daniel Hannan - Palestinians are already, by some measure, the largest per capita recipients of overseas aid in the world. Yet the level of violence in Gaza and the West Bank has risen in proportion to the amount of assistance received. When Hamas was elected earlier this year, the EU brushed aside American objections and handed over 120 million euros. Palestinians responded by ransacking EU diplomatic missions and kidnapping European citizens. The EU, as the largest overseas donor to the PA, has created a subsidy-based society, as sulky, lethargic and corrupt as any on earth. But it doesn't have to be this way. The EU, in its well-intentioned but doltish way, is fueling the conflict. The Jewish state represents the supreme vindication of the national principle: that is, the desire of every people to have their own country. The EU, by contrast, is founded in the belief that national loyalties are artificial, transient, and ultimately discreditable. Simply by existing, Israel challenges the main assumption on which European integration is based.
2006-04-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive