Has fascism returned to
Europe, as we have been informed this week? Is it accurate to talk
about all of Europe as a single entity? Are we on the brink of
catastrophe, similar to the one that transpired there less than a decade
ago? Is the case of the neo-Nazi party in Germany similar to the case
of the National Front in France? In Germany, the neo-Nazi party feeds
directly off the unholy "classic" Nazism, whereas in France the
far-right party feeds off the growing Muslim presence.
Would it be accurate to
compare these two parties to Geert Wilder's Party for Freedom in the
Netherlands? (Let us recall Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whose
calls against Islam have been echoed by additional Muslim intellectuals
in Europe.) What about Scandinavia, Hungary and England -- does the same
characterization apply? Is there one singular reason behind the
sweeping success of Euroskeptic parties in the recent European
Parliament election? When I encounter the catchphrase "fascism shall not
pass," I immediately get suspicious. Especially when it is surrounded
by a media consensus. As far as a particular bunch of windbags is
concerned, we, the Israeli majority, are afflicted with fascism. The
radical global Left views all of Israel in this way. In short, it is
best to review events without the Pavlovian filter called the fear of
the Right.
As Israelis and Jews we
have a rather complicated relationship with Europe. Ever since Greece
and Rome, through Spain and Provence, and to this day, we have been
waging a broken, deep, sad, wounded and bleeding dialogue with European
culture, religion and politics.
2.
The 20th century, with
its gory history, gave rise to an emasculated Europe. Europe voluntarily
castrated itself out of fear of nationalism, the particular brand of
separatism and the racist hatred that led to the awful catastrophe of
World War II. The communists were especially skilled at evoking that
particular European guilt, and that is how they managed to shake the
comparison between communism and Nazism, even though communism was
responsible for its fair share of atrocities, as well.
Anyone familiar with
the leftist discourse, even in Israel, knows how easily words like
"nationalism," "fascism," "anti-democratic" and "xenophobia" are thrown
around. One could say that in light of Europe's terrible experience, the
intellectual elite has now thrown the baby out with the bath water:
nationalism has become taboo, as it is seen as the central cause of two
world wars.
The European Union was
an attempt to prevent the continent from slipping into another world
war. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they
learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4) -- how? By uniting all the nations and
all the nationalities under one flag, one currency and one central
government, much like the American colonies joined together to form the
United States of America in 1776. People visiting the U.S. don't think
of the states as separate entities. Traveling from West Virginia to Ohio
and then to Michigan feels like a trip between cities. If it is
possible there, it is possible in Europe too, isn't it?
But -- and this is a
big but -- the American colonies did not comprise people belonging to
different nationalities. There were different communities, varying
economic statuses, scattered groups from the Old Country, but of the
same nationality. In Europe, different countries have histories spanning
thousands of years, with radically different mythologies (formative
stories), separate ethos (value systems), different languages and
different histories. Even Christianity, the one unifying thread, differs
from country to country.
3.
Here is a bit of
historical irony: Colonial Europe, which split tribes and families apart
and delineated artificial borders to create national entities in the
Third World, has now tried to do the same thing to itself. The European
Union served to tone down the nationalistic sentiments, turning them
into a secondary issue in a much wider context. It was a sort of
super-state that blurred national identity in efforts to protect against
nationalism.
But here we are, the
Israelis, looking around us in 2014. The colonialist experiment has been
exposed as a massive failure. What, for example, united the Sunnis,
Shiites, Alawites, Christians, Druze and Assyrians into one Syrian
nation? I mean, other than late Syrian President Hafez Assad's sword?
Once the Damascus butcher's sword became dull, this artificial nation
began to fall apart. The Middle East is reverting back to its "natural"
state -- division by tribes and clans. This also holds true for the
artificial creation known as the Palestinians. If it weren't for their
shared hatred of Israel and the Jews, what would unite the Arab families
of the Galillee to the Nablus clan? What would unite the population of
Ramallah with the Hebron families, or the tribes of Gaza? Even their
dialects are different, the families come from drastically different
backgrounds, and there are plenty more differences.
Europe, too, is founded
on ancient nationalist traditions. It turns out that a deep national
identity is crucial to people's sense of social belonging, to their
connection with the formative mythology on which they were raised, to
their psychological integration with God and religion. And what did the
European Union offer in exchange for these things? Financial gain.
Wealth. History teaches us that no national body -- not even an empire
-- has ever been able to form around purely materialistic aspirations.
In this regard, the fact that ultimately the European Union did not
deliver wealth, but instead created bitterness and instability, could
end up bringing about precisely what the union was established to avoid
-- the next big violent conflict.
One thing is clear: the
elections for the European Parliament have been extremely successful
for parties whose goal is to dissolve the European Union. This seems to
be the one clear message communicated by the vote. Obviously, there were
many contributing factors: European nations' inherent weakness in the
face of mass Muslim immigration; the unsuccessful policy of
multiculturalism, which has empowered the foreigners at the expense of
the local culture (in a manner reminiscent of our own human rights
organizations here in Israel who fight to protect the rights of everyone
but the right of the Jews to assemble as a nation and defend
ourselves); the collapse of the European economy; the artificial nature
of the euro; mass unemployment, especially among the young, and more.
4.
I have been searching
for a serious voice, someone who actually voted for one of the
independence parties that have been sowing fear among many this week. I
found the influential British blogger Pat Condell. His calls to vote
don't contain even a hint of fascism or xenophobia. His arguments should
also be considered in the grand scheme of things. In his view, to be a
member of the European Parliament is like driving a car from the
passenger seat using a toy steering wheel. According to Condell, members
of the European Parliament are "not allowed to initiate legislation:
it's all decided for them in advance by a panel of commissioners who
haven't been elected by anybody." The result is that "our laws in
Britain are made by people who have not been elected and can't be
removed by popular vote. Dictatorship by any other name."
"And there's nothing
our Parliament can do about it because the people in it have signed away
their power and ours and left us at the mercy of an illegitimate regime
that has no democratic mandate from anybody and has never even bothered
to seek one," Condell says. He calls on the public to vote for
independence parties "because the only people in it (the European
Parliament) with any moral legitimacy are the ones who would vote to
abolish it, given the chance, and the more of them we can elect the
better."
Voting for independence
parties across Europe -- even if you don't necessarily agree with all
their policies -- will "send a message to the people who've stolen our
democracy that we're serious about taking it back," Condell argues. "If
you believe, as I do, that nothing is more important, politically, than
government by consent, there is literally nobody else in Britain to vote
for."
These elections, Condell tells
his listeners, are "our chance to tell these political criminals and
their media friends that they can misrepresent us and call us all the
ugly hateful names they like but we've had enough of their lies and
their slippery evasions. We want our sovereign democracy back and we are
not taking no for an answer." Interesting.
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