Europe and the Middle East Crisis

What is Europe's "take" on the current Middle East crisis? According to the Council of the European Union, quoting the stories,

Middle East: EU calls for an “immediate cessation of hostilities”Deeply concerned about the current crisis in the Middle East and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the region, EU foreign ministers meeting on 17 July in the External Relations Council called for the “release of abducted soldiers and an immediate cessation of hostilities”. While recognising Israel’s legitimate right to self-defence, they nevertheless urged the country to exercise “utmost restraint” and not to “resort to disproportionate action”.

Europe to provide humanitarian aid - The European Commission will send emergency help to Lebanon. And this is a quote from the story,

The European Commission announced today a doubling of its emergency aid for Lebanon as it seeks to provide humanitarian aid for victims of the conflict. The €10 million, managed by the Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), will cover a range of urgent relief activities including the provision of emergency supplies for displaced people and medical assistance.

NATO asked for help - Israel would like the help of NATO to establish a buffer zone between itself and Lebanon. According to the International Herald Tribune,

With NATO straining to fulfill its commitment in Afghanistan and facing new demands from the United Nations to send troops to Sudan, Israel's proposal that NATO provide a buffer zone along the Israeli-Lebanese border surprised members of the alliance Sunday. Amir Peretz, the Israeli defense minister, told the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, that Israel would welcome a NATO force, saying that the Lebanese Army was too weak to do the job.
Diplomats said it was also a clear signal to the UN that its force in the area was of limited importance since it had failed to disarm Hezbollah fighters or protect the border since Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.
At NATO headquarters in Brussels, there was a measured official response to the Israeli request. Unofficially, Peretz's request caught NATO by surprise. Its secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, spoke last week with his UN counterpart, Kofi Annan, about the increasing violence in the Middle East, and there was no mention about what kind of role NATO could play, if any. . .
The United States has already responded favorably to the request. John Bolton, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said Israel's request would be taken seriously Speaking in a interview on CNN, Bolton said, "We have been looking
carefully at a multinational force, perhaps authorized by the Security Council,
but not a UN-helmeted force.

Voices in Europe - The BBC carried a story which presented a variety of public opinions voiced about the crisis. It included the Uk, Switzerland, and Russia.

Who is to help? The NYT carried this excellent analysis about Israel's dilemma. To quote the opening,

JERUSALEM, July 23 — For decades, Arab — particularly Palestinian — leaders have sought international intervention in their conflicts with Israel, while Israeli leaders spurned foreign forces as unreliable and likely to be biased against Israeli interests.
Now, in a sudden turnabout, Israel is embracing the possibility of an aggressive international force on its northern border with Lebanon to bolster its security in its struggle with Hezbollah.
“In a way, we’re playing an old Palestine Liberation Organization game,” said Michael Oren of the center-right Shalem Center, a research institute in Jerusalem, “to precipitate regional instability and then try to bring in international intervention. We fought against it in the past, but Israel now realizes it can’t do things alone. And Israel feels here it has a friend in America and some greater understanding in Europe.”

About 10% of my current readers are from Europe. There are two reasons of which I am aware. One is that I surf others blogs on the reciprocal site Blog Explosion; and they visit mine. The second is that I use Technorati tags. The rest are a mystery to me. However, I did find an article on the European blogosphere, by Andres Witterman. I quote,

An interesting research by Fittkau & Maass (which I found on PR Blogger) shows that blogging is still not as popular in Europe as in other regions. . .
The survey also asked if they are reading blogs and the difference here is not as big as in the numbers above (more than half of European OpenBC'ers are using blogs - which is still less than in any other region).
What coudl be the reason for that? I am not sure myself, but I don't think it is technophobic tendencies or even access to other kind of media. I think the real reason is that in Europe your potential readership is far smaller than in the US, in South America or in China. In the US and in Australia you are blogging in English and the world is reading you. In LatAm you are posting in Spanish or if you are unlucky in Portuguese - still, many people around the world will understand you. China is another matter.
A German or Polish blog just won't catch as much attention. Your target group is smaller. Is that why people tend to blog less? Because they think there are not enough people to pay attention to you anyway?. . .

The globe is shrinking - As technology connects us more and more, I continue to be amazed that Europeans are interested in what I have to say. But I am excited about each possibility for "hands across the sea."

Tags: Europe European Union U.S. foreign policy Middle East blogs Condoleezza Rice terrorism Israel NATO

My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about relationships between rural and city folks.