Another Accusation of European Appeasement

In private e-mail my recent post accusing the European Union, or at least its leadership, of apeasement or even collaboration in the War on Terror received some fairly harsh replies from friends and family who, like me, are on the left side of the political spectrum. Europe, I was told, is only doing what's in it's own interests. Why is destroying Israel or funding terrorism in Europe's interest? Well... they have a large Muslim immigrant population, I'm told. OK, add pandering to appeasement and collaboration in my list of accusations.

To emphasize the point, former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar, accused the E.U. of appeasement during a visit to Israel last month:

Europe likes appeasement very much; this is one of the most important differences between us and the States.

[...]

In Europe, Israel is not very popular, not only this (Sharon) government, all governments. Most Europeans support the Palestinian cause.

The article went on to quote Mr. Aznar as saying that the motivation for European policy toward the Middle East is to "distinguish itself" from the United States. This, in more politically correct diplomatic language, echoes former European Union M.P. Ilke Schroeder's accusation of Europe deliberately funding Palestinian terrorism to fight a proxy war against the United States.

We see these accusations coming from knowledgeable European politicians on both the right and left. Isn't it time we stop ignoring them? Isn't it time we stop making excuses for our European "friends and allies"?