Daniel 7:7-8
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
This is a very interesting prophetic development. We have been looking for the EU to fulfill the revived Roman Empire and the covenant of Daniel chapter nine but it turns out that it will actually be fulfilled by the Mediterranean Union (MU).

The EU has nations that were not in the original Roman Empire but the MU includes the right nations. It is looking like the exact same lands that were in the original Roman Empire will also be in the revived Roman Empire. Ireland was never in the Roman Empire and it is interesting that the voters of Ireland just turned down the treaty that would have federalized the EU. So it looks like Ireland will stay out.

It is also interesting that nations east of Germany were never in the Roman Empire. Perhaps they will start their own union or unite again in a union with Russia. I would bet on them uniting with Russia since Russia has the energy resources that they require.

Israel will be part of the Mediterranean Union so that sets the stage for the leader of the MU confirming the covenant with many for one week (7 years) spoken of by Daniel chapter nine.

The peaces are now rapidly coming together for fulfillment for that last week of years. We have the right alignment of nations and a likely peace agreement with all the old Roman Empire nations guaranteeing Israel’s right to exist. Now it is just a matter of God’s timing.

It also looks to me like the putting together of a federalized EU with the present members will fail and it will be replaced with the membership of the MU.

Daniel chapters 2 and 7 reveal a strong connection between the formation of the European Union and end-times scripture. The possible fulfillment of this scripture began in 1950 when the Roman Empire began to show signs of being revived. In 1950 the European Coal and Steel Community was proposed as a means of achieving economic unification in Europe following the war. The hope was that this would strengthen economic trade in Europe. This unified effort led to the signing of the treaties of Rome in 1957, which established the European Economic Community (EEC), and the European Atomic Energy Council. That treaty was taken a step further with the signing of the Brussels Treaty in 1965. The Brussels Treaty began the process of rebuilding the old Roman Empire through reunification of European states under one political system, one economic system, and eventually under the protection of one military force. The treaty established a commission, council, parliament, and court for the union. The revived Roman Empire prophesied in the Bible was well on its way to becoming a reality.

More states were added to this growing union in 1973, 1981, and 1986, making up the 10 permanent member states of today’s European Union. In 2002, the Euro was introduced as the first step toward a unified single currency in Europe. Upon adopting the Euro, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres raved, “As Peter was the rock on which the church was built, so the Euro is the rock on which the European Union will be built.” 3

The EU today is made up of over 25 countries, however the ten nations of the Western European Alliance have a separate status as full members, while those nations who joined subsequent to the original 10 have only associate membership, or observer status. This 10 nation military wing of the EU may very well fulfill the prophecy of the beast with 10 horns from Daniel 7:7-8 and Revelations 13:1. On this beast’s back will ride the woman that symbolizes a global religious system that is to appear before Christ returns to set up His kingdom.

The purpose of the EU’s creation was and is, ultimately, to create a European super-state or “United States of Europe”, as some have suggested naming it, that would eventually rival the United States in influence and military might. In 1999, Javier Solana became the High Representative for the EU’s foreign and security policy, and through recommendation 666, he was given emergency powers over the military wing of the EU in 2000. All that currently remains to create a truly revived Roman Empire is the creation of a permanent executive branch of government and the full integration of the new Euro currency. With the introduction of the new EU constitution, the groundwork is being laid for just such an executive branch and economic system.

So how does this all relate to Bible prophecy? Let’s start with the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 2 records that the ancient Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream concerning the Last Days. No Babylonian could interpret the dream; however, Daniel, a captive of Judah, was able to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2:25-30), as God had already revealed the dream to him (Daniel 2:19-23).

Daniel 2:25-30 says, “You, O king, your thoughts came while you were on your bed about what would happen in the future, and the Revealer of Secrets informed you what will be. As for me, it is not because I possess more wisdom than any other being that this secret was revealed to me, but rather to make the interpretation known to the king, so that you may know what has occupied your thoughts.”

Daniel recounted the dream to Nebuchadnezzar, and interpreted the king’s dream of a huge statue by explaining the 4 major components of the statue.

1. A head of Gold

2. Breast and arms of silver

3. Belly and thighs of bronze

4. Feet of iron and clay

Most Bible scholars interpret these 4 components to represent the 4 major empires that have existed in the world’s history. Daniel confirms that the first of these empires is Babylon, ruled by Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 2:37-38 “Thou, O king, art a king of kings; for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of Gold.”

Daniel goes on to identify the second and third empires that will emerge following the Babylonian empire.

Daniel 2:39 “And after you will arise another kingdom inferior to you, and [then] another, a third kingdom, of copper, which will rule the whole earth.”

History records the empires that followed Babylon were Medo-Persia and Greece. Daniel 5 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar’s successor, Belshazzar, was conquered by Persia. The second empire of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was established from modern-day Iran to Asia Minor (Turkey).

The third empire to arise (Daniel 2:39b) and rule the earth was Greece, whose reign began at the time of Alexander the Great. The fourth empire will be a revived model of this Roman Empire. Daniel did, after all, tell Nebuchadnezzar that his vision was about “what will be at the End of Days” (Daniel 2:28). The fourth empire is described as follows:

Daniel 2:40 “It will be strong, yet mixed. It will be a diverse empire (part of potters clay and part of iron, the kingdom will be divided), but will be strong (but there shall be in it of the strength of iron)

Prophecies elsewhere in the Bible also describe this fourth empire of the final days, and by studying these we can examine further any indications that would point to the European Union as the final world empire that will be ruled by the antichrist before Messiah returns.

DANIEL’S VISION OF 4 BEASTS

Following Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Daniel also had a vision of these 4 kingdoms, but this time they were represented by 4 beasts. (Daniel 7:1-24)

The first beast in Daniel 7:4 is described as being “like a lion, and it has eagles wings”. Interestingly, the emblem of the ancient Babylon was a lion with eagles wings.

The second beast is described in Daniel 7:5 – “Then behold! Another beast, a second one, similar to a bear; it was placed on one side, and there were three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and this is what they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’” The second beast in Daniel 7 is generally accepted as being Medo-Persia because Persia devoured much of the Middle East and Asia, and the Persian Empire had three capitals, Susa, Persepolis, and the conquered Babylon.

Of the third beast Daniel 7:6 says “After this I was watching and behold! Another beast, like a leopard, with four bird’s wings on its back; the beast had four heads, and it was given dominion”. This beast is symbolic of the empire of Greece left behind by Alexander the Great. When Alexander the Great died in 323 C.E., his empire was divided between and ruled by 4 of his generals.

The following verses describe the 4th beast, or kingdom of Daniel’s dream.

Daniel 7:7-8 “After this I was watching in night visions, and behold! A fourth beast, exceedingly terrifying, awesome and strong. It has immense iron teeth, and it was devouring and crumbling, and trampling its feet what remained. It was different from all the beasts that had preceded it, and it had ten horns. As I was contemplating the horns, behold! Another horn, a small one, came up among them, and three of the previous horns were uprooted before it. There were eyes like human eyes in this horn, and a mouth speaking haughty words”.

Daniel 7:23 “Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it to peaces.

In the first verse we see a fourth beast with 10 horns. The small horn, speaking haughty words, rises up and conquers three of them. This represents the antichrist that will come to power through the 4th kingdom. The 10 horns, 3 of which are subdued, are the 10 kings that make up the rulers of the 4th kingdom. From this kingdom and the reign of antichrist will come a global system of government that will rule over the earth prior to the coming of Christ to establish his Kingdom.

Daniel 7:24 “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.”

The three kings that are subdued will probably not approve of his rise to power or will object to his far-reaching powers. It’s interesting that, prior to the war in Iraq, France, Germany, and Belgium threatened the EU nations that sided with the U.S. with serious consequences if any EU partner joined the coalition to remove Sadam Hussein.

Recent events may point to the position that the future antichrist will fill in his rise to power. In addition to creating an EU constitution, plans are being discussed for an EU presidency that will replace the current 6 month rotating presidency, creating a powerful international leader with great influence at the United Nations and on the global stage. The new president would be elected by government heads of EU members and would hold office for five years. Tony Blair believes this new president “will become the public face and driving force of Europe”2. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has gone so far as to say that the Euro was the “first step to a federation”, and he went on to say that he wanted a powerful president of the EU as head of a European government with full legal and executive power. He welcomed the progress made in removing the “sovereign rights” of nations.3

We’re given a clue as to the identity of the little horn in Daniel 9:26 – “And after threescore and two weeks and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and end thereof shall be [as swept away] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

We know that the people who destroyed Jerusalem (the city) and the temple (the sanctuary) were the Romans. From this people shall come the “prince that is to come” or the Antichrist. We can expect then for the Antichrist to rise up from a fourth kingdom that will be the revived Roman Empire.

Daniel 7:25 says, “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”

The Antichrist will speak blasphemous words against God as he rules over the world, and there will be intense persecution of the tribulation saints, those who accept Christ after the rapture of His church. A time and times and the dividing of time refers to the three and a half years of the Great Tribulation (see Rev. 12:14; 135).

The EU is definitely becoming a world power of clay (diversity) and iron (power) with striking similarities to the fourth kingdom or fourth beast of Daniel’s prophecies. A world power of so many ethnic groups and representing so many states could easily become a very influential leader at the United Nations and the world. It’s possible that the U.N. is a beginning for this world government that will eventually be ruled by a revived Roman Empire and the Antichrist.

There are, however, other views on these prophesies that can be considered. Some think that the fourth kingdom is the revived Roman Empire (ten kings are the 10 nation military alliance of the EU) and the U.N. is the 4th beast (10 horns being the 10 bio-regions the UN has established for the globe). Only time will tell which is the case.

If the EU is the revived Roman Empire that will bring about the rise of Antichrist, then it is important to look at the religious symbolism of the EU. After all, riding on the beast’s back will be the harlot that represents a global pagan religious system that will unite the world and play a part in the persecution of the tribulation saints (Rev. 17).

The EU flag has a circle of 12 stars on a blue background. These stars were inspired by the halo of 12 stars appearing around the Madonna as depicted in Catholic pictures of her. Leon Marchal, former secretary general of the Council of Europe, confirmed that the stars are representative of “the woman of the Apocalypse”. He expounded, “it’s wonderful that we have gotten back to the introit of the new Mass of the Assumption. It’s the corona stellarum duodecim of the woman of the Apocalypse”.4 He is referencing the woman in Revelation 12 who appears with a crown of 12 stars. The Bible uses this symbolism to represent Israel, however the Catholic Church has always claimed that she represents the Virgin Mary, “the mother of God”. A leaflet titled “Building Europe Together” states that “The European flag is a shared flag, blue with 12 gold stars symbolizing completeness. The number will remain 12 no matter how many countries there are in the European Union.”

The anthem of the EU “Ode to Joy” also contains religious symbolism. “Ode to Joy” is the prelude to the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which has religious implications. EU publications state that the anthem really is an “ode to freedom, community, and peace”, however the lyrics, by Friedrich von Schiller, are actually about the entering of the shrine of a pagan goddess and the uniting of all men in brotherhood, by the power of magic.5

Further evidence of a religious side to the European Union is a poster that was issued by the EU, showing the tower of Babel. The poster carried the slogan “Many tongues, one voice.” As if the celebration of the pagan tower that led God to confuse the languages of a defiant people (Genesis 11) isn’t enough, a crane in the background was shown rebuilding the tower. Now, once again, a rebellious people are rebuilding mystery Babylon. In a parliament building in Strasbourg, France, you will find an enormous replica of the unfinished tower of Babel that the secular press has named “Eurobabel”.

If that religious symbolism seems too obscure to be that significant, perhaps a snapshot of Revelation 17 will peak your interest in the religious symbolism of the EU. Revelation 17 depicts a great harlot riding on a beast. The beast in Revelation 17 represents the world government and the great harlot is a global religion that will ride in on its back. This harlot riding a beast was used when Britain issued a stamp to commemorate the first EU parliament election in 1979. It is now the official picture of the EU, and is painted on the dome of the parliament building in Brussels. It is also pictured on the same building that holds the “Eurobabel”.

The EU constitution has also raised the ire of protestant leaders by banning the mention of Christianity as part of Europe’s cultural heritage, while at the same time, including references to the civilizations of Greece and Rome, and the philosophical heritage of the Enlightenment. EU government representatives excused this revisionist view of history by claiming any mention of Christian values would upset the Muslim population of the EU.6

As you can see, the stage is being set for the emergence of a global political system(the EU and the UN), a global economic system(the Euro and WTO), and a global religious system (the interfaith movement). The EU would seem to fulfill many of the prophesies of the fourth kingdom that is to come, from which will arise the Antichrist of the end-times. Only time will tell, but as we are encouraged in the Bible to be aware of the signs, we should all be looking up. We may soon be with our Lord.

First the European Union, now the Mediterranean Union …

That is the proposal being put forth by the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. The proposed union would consist of sixteen southern European, Middle Eastern and North African countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea: Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. The union though primarily economic, would also involve member countries in discussions over controversial issues such as Turkey’s EU membership, illegal immigration, counter-terrorism, energy security, the Israel-Palestinian conflict and would provide another forum where Israel and its Arab neighbours could participate together. Sarkozy has said that he wants the countries that border on the Mediterranean to form a council and hold regular summit meetings under a rotating presidency and envisions it as being a bridge between Europe and the Muslim world.

While some countries have expressed guarded to full support for the proposal, Turkey has balked as it sees it as nothing more than a mechanism to keep Turkey out of the EU. This fear is not misplaced as keeping the EU closed to Turkey was part of Sarkozy’s campaign platform. In fact, Sarkozy has argued in the past that Turkey has always been part of Asia Minor and not Europe. Having appointed Bernard Kouchner as Foreign Minister, it was thought that the move could signal a change to his well known opposition to Turkey’s entry to the EU. That possibility now seems more remote, since Sarkozy sees the MU as a viable alternative to Turkish membership in the EU.
Sarkozy sees the MU working closely with the EU, eventually forming joint institutions, even as the organizations remain separate and distinct entities. His proposal could be seen as a follow-up of the EU sponsored Barcelona process which sought to bring 12 Mediterranean countries into a free-trade zone by 2010. This Barcelona initiative is currently the only forum where “Israel and Arab countries sit around the same table.”

The proposed Mediterranean Union obviously invokes several related issues, such as the limits of EU enlargement, current EU priorities, the potential Turkish accession to the EU and all issues related to migration to and within the European borders. As mentioned, Sarkozy views the European Union as strictly geographically limited and often seems to allude to the cultural and religious integrity of Europe. Following this logic he opposes Turkish membership to the EU and proposes the MU as a consolation price…

Whatever the reasons may be for limiting the EU geographically & culturally, the question remains how setting up an alternative (partially overlapping) union would benefit the parties involved. In practice the MU would be strictly economic in nature and serve as an additional talking-shop in order to discuss & tackle above-mentioned issues. This implies very clearly that the EU will differ from the MU in that it will be striving for more political union and a common European culture and that free movement and open borders within the MU will never be taken into consideration.

Assuming that the Mediterranean Union becomes reality, it is tempting to sketch a few broad lines of the likely implications for both institutions further down the line:

Following the instauration of the MU, it will be nearly inevitable for the EU to adopt a clear stance on its further enlargement and a clear limit will be agreed upon (based on geographical and cultural borders). In addition the EU is likely to embark on a large scale effort to actively promote the notion and existence of a common European Culture making references to religious roots and imagined commonalities between all member states.

The MU on the other hand will be relegated to the economic sphere, where economic policies, trade liberalisation and other agreements will be dictated by the EU (since nearly a majority of its members will be Southern European Member States). Whereas this may favour economic prosperity for all its members, the members of the MU will not enjoy free movement across the union.

The MU therefore will fail to address one of Europe’s most pressing issues: the “greying” of its workforce. Since there are only three options to address this issue, abandoning 1 of them seems rather short-sighted, especially considering that “immigration” is the most logical one. (Having more babies seems rather counterproductive in a world with an exponential population growth & working longer – until the age of 77 some experts whisper – will not go down as the most popular policy decision.)

Furthermore, whereas the MU may be a bridge between the EU and the Muslim World, it will never carry the symbolic importance of accepting a predominantly Muslim nation within the EU. If anything it could widen the gap and feed the existing frustration.

RELIGION HAS TO BE REMOVED FROM THE POLITICAL EQUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST. AND THAT PROBABLY MEANS BY FORCE. THE MEDITERRANEAN UNION AS A BETTER FINAL SOLUTION.

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Abstract: When Christianism (grandiosely self described at the time as “Orthodox Catholicism”, namely Common Opinion Universalism) became officially the one and only religion of the fascist Roman empire, Judaism, the tribal source of Christianism, was programmed for extinction. This is the basic source of the Arab-Israeli conflict. To fix it, religions (and not just Hamas, as Israel’s foreign minister Tzipi Livni has it) have to be removed from the “equation”. And that will mean mental, legal, economic and if need be, physical force: if Gaza can be blockaded, so can others (including Israel).

Fortunately, after enough secularization, a solution exists to the entire mess: the establishment of a powerful Mediterranean Union.

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Roger Cohen wrote an excellent essay on the Arab-Israeli conflict, in light of Israel’s assault on Gaza and Hamas ["Dominion of the Dead", NYT and IHT, January 7, 2008]. In it Cohen argues, among other things, that the weight of dead history rules the conflict: “History is relentless. Sometimes its destructive gyre gets overcome: France and Germany freed themselves after 1945 from war’s cycle. So did Poland and Germany. China and Japan scarcely love each other but do business. Only in the Middle East do the dead rule.”

It may be rather the dominion of religions that is generating the hatred. From way back. (In P/S 6 below, we suggest the only viable long term solution, but religion will have to be defanged first.) 

It is highly politically incorrect to attack religion, because a superficial reading of the republican constitution in Western secular states calls for tolerance. But TOLERANCE, IMPLICITLY, REQUIRES GOOD BEHAVIOR: the secular republic, a religion of its own, rules and just tolerates religious superstitions; it just tolerates them, no more, they have to behave.

Nevertheless, out of control religion obviously dominates the rest in the Middle East. It’s faiths over reason, and faiths rule. As faiths hate each other, and try to exterminate each other, it’s war for ever, as long as the final solution has not imposed itself.

Comparisons with past strife in Europe, and the present unification of Europe, have to be used very carefully, when talking about Israel and the Arabs. But they are revealing. Roger Cohen does not get into what made the European conflicts different from the Arab-Israeli conflict. We will do this presently, and it suggests how to get out of it.

One has first to look at the religious problem straight in the eye: Christianism and Islam are heresies of Judaism. Judaism is tribal. The God of Judaism is not nice (Jehovah obviously inspired the semi demented and certainly atrociously lethal, civilization shattering emperor Constantine). Christianism and Islam are universal (so Judaism is their natural enemy, except that they clearly originate from it, hence a self contradiction.)

Heresies hate each other all the more since the Bible, New and Old Testament, and Christian governmental practice, under the Roman empire, made clear that heretics should be executed (if possible by fire). Islam came after centuries of imperial Roman Catholic terror (which involved a “war against the philosophers”, book burning, mass murders and other civilization devolving atrocities; intellectuals and books had to flee to Persia!). Islam was fully inspired by them all.

(Meanwhile, in the West, the Franks had defanged Catholicism by 496 CE; the entire “Oriental Part” of the Roman empire, including Palestine and Arab lands missed that secular turn, and this is the root of the different fates of the “Pars Occidentalis” and the “Pars Orientalis”: the West became dominated by secular law and common sense, whereas the Orient slowly sunk under superstition and religious law, in spite of all those good books saved from Catholic burning.) 

The Arab-Israeli conflict was built in the version of the Qur’an given to us by Caliph Uthman. In the Qur’an Jews are insulted, threatened, and apparently, threatened with death (whatever apologists of Islam who do not seem to have read the Qur’an in depth say). Interestingly, the Muslims inherited the hatred of Jews from the Christians (some are not going to like the word “hatred”; again, they should go back to the Qur’an, and read it, to learn that many pigs and monkeys are actually… Jews, put into this dismal state by God Himself). Threatened with death (once again!), the Jews/Israelis are in no mood to let their guard down.

So we cannot get out of the Arab-Israeli conflict as long as the religions are left to speak. Hamas, or Hezbollah, and most Arab states, and to a significant extent Israel, are all religious. To make matters worse, Hamas and Israel’s government have been democratically elected (that does not mean they are full democracies; they are not, because democracy requires full democratic institutions, and obedience to Universal Human Rights).

Let’s compare with Europe. Although sometimes there were extensive religious conflicts in Europe, they were not baked into the fundamental European conflict mix. Religions were incidental, incidental to, an excuse for, the fundamental power plays in Europe. On the grandest historical scheme, France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain belonged, sometimes for centuries, to the same country.

France, Germany and Poland were part of the same polity. Here are pell-mell samples of past facts: a lot of Germania was Roman, and all of Germany belonged to the Merovingian, and then Carolingian empires (which extended all the way to Poland); a British slave became empress of the Franks, a king of France married an Ukrainian princess, another a Danish princess, still another was elected king of Poland; France and Britain are actually the same country, more or less divided in two to this day (same with Germany), France was all involved in the Thirty Year war in Germany, Napoleon not only united Germany, but its Grand Army was greatly made of Germans, etc… So the fighting in Europe was inside a single civilizational system.  Europeans all shared the same laws, religions and even language for centuries, or even millennia. They may have different languages now (again unified by Anglo-Normand, (aka “English”)), but they have the same cultural roots, they are all variants of the same civilization. The Greco-Romano-Frankish civilization.

In the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, the wars between France and Germany had clear rights and wrongs. For example the German universal health care system was clearly the best in the world, an inspiration for France. Germany had also the highest literacy rate in the world (about 100%).

But then, France was a democracy and a republic, with universal human rights, whereas Germany was not a republic, not a democracy, but a mild fascist system, a “Reich”. The “Reich”, then, not restrained by democratic checks and balances, became ever more fascist, and attacked all of Europe (August 1914). That did not work too well, so, propped by rogue American plutocrats, persisting in its erroneous ways, Germany became ever more fascist, racist and demented, until France and Britain declared war to it on September 3, 1939, to save democracy. By then many Germans had a feeling of doom, as they perceived they were not on the right side of right. Fascism in Germany was terminated in 1945, and many of the Nazis had come to realize, even before this, that they could not go on like that. There was a clash of civilization, and the good civilization won. 

It’s politically correct to proclaim that there is no clash of civilization between Islam and the rest. But Islam was initially constructed as a war machine against Christianity and Judaism, just like Christianity was constructed as a war machine against all other religions (and exterminated them all, except Judaism, although it came close in the fifth century). Right now, there is at least a clash of religions.

Some of the wrongs between Israel and Islam are from way back: Christianity was built by oppressing the Jews (allusion to what Constantine and his successors did). Christians ejected Jews from Israel, and built a church on the great Jewish temple. Islam inherited this, but cranked it up to the next level, by making the oppression of the Jews not just official, but legal. They also built several Muslim mosques and “shrines”on the Jewish Temple Mount, perhaps to show they were several times as bad as the Christians. (By then the Franks were applying full Roman law again and had given the Jews their full rights back, in equality with Catholics.)

Islam is antidemocratic (it’s not just a religion but a system of government that loudly proclaim what Hitler called the “Fuehrerprinzip”, i.e., the Chief is always endowed by God with absolute right). Israel is also fundamentally anti democratic: to say that people from a particular religion (Judaism) have particular rights on a piece of land is an offensive tribal imposition.

And so on. Both sides are very wrong. If they keep on persisting in their erroneous ways, Weapons of Mass Destruction will set them right, or whatever dust is left. If one wants to help them out, one has to tell them their thousands truths mighty soon, in no uncertain terms, and apply enough carrots and sticks to change their behavior. Being just nice will not do it. They cannot be treated as adults. It is extremely clear in the case of Hamas, but, unfortunately, this applies to Israel too. Democracy can go wrong when its institutional roots are not deep enough: consider the Weimar republic.

To come back to the democracy-turned-fascist that misgoverned Germany with the anxious approval of the German people: democracy was imposed by force there in 1945, after killing more than 11% of the German population, and destroying the country (unfortunately). If France and Great Britain had attacked earlier, the outcome would have been better (but Great Britain, as the USA, had no army, and no inclination to treat Germany, or the Nazis,  severely). In other words, force can work as a last resort. To break the rule of Islam and Judaism in the Middle East as political system is a necessity, and will happen, either by polite force, or massive destruction.
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Patrice Ayme
Patriceayme.com
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P/S 1: To the European historical entanglement corresponded psychological entanglements. The Roman aggression, or, let’s say, civilizational push, made the rather pacific Germans ever more aggressive and militarized in return (we know this from archeological studies). In turn Rome became ever more fascist (as generals such as Marius became larger than previously authorized life). Thus, historically and ironically, in the great and long confrontation between Roma and Germania, Rome was advanced, but fascist, and Germania was primitive, but democratic and anti-sexist. After a millennium of this, the Germans (in the person of the elected king of the Franks Clovis) learned to become fascist (Clovis became Consul and exerted Roman imperator powers demonstrated in the summary execution of a follower during the “Vase de Soisson” incident, when Clovis imposed his Roman imperator power for all Franks to see). Meanwhile, transmogrified by German influence, the Romans became less sexist (they had at least one fully ruling and civilization forging empress, an “Augusta”).

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P/S 2: Thus conflict creates mental entanglement, and right now, that means entanglement with hatred. And hatred plenty there will be, because Israel has already killed hundreds of apparently innocent small children in Gaza in the present offensive. Differently from the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis, and in spite of Israeli efforts to hide it all, this is in full sight of the entire planet.

Now the entire planet, differently from the populace of Nazi Germany (from which the Nazi crimes against civilians were rather hidden, thanks to an undeniable Will to Ignorance of the German population, and heavy censorship), is confronted with having to decide to protest this, or not, and do something about it, or not. When children are dying, the weight is heavy. The whole planer is watching, and it is not deep in a jungle in Congo somewhere, out of sight, out of mind. There is only so much that the entire planet’s moral sense can take. At some point, only force will bring relief. But that means enforcing no more attacks, from any side. Neither from bulldozers, rockets, nor hate inspired documents, such as the literal, Uthman inspired Qur’an, or literal interpretations of tribal Judaism.

Listening to Israeli civilians watching a city being bombed, approving loudly, and insisting they would love to see it razed, and they don’t mind, because they feel “fascist” [sic! from a woman with reddish hair], shows, clearly that the human impulses that led to the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto are not restricted to Nazism. Israel is entering there an extreme danger zone, because it exists strictly at the goodwill of the EU and USA. It is hubris to feel otherwise.

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P/S 3: Massively lethal force was used to remove religion from the political equation in Europe, all over Europe, killing millions [part of the process included the horrible religious wars of the 16-17 C].

By the time the US Constitution rolled out, the removal by force of religion from the equation was a given (so the USA does not have as much memory of the struggle to eliminate religion from politics). The first two US presidents put it thus in a joint document:”… As the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion…”[1796-97]. (The recent re-imposition of religion in the USA, is very recent, indeed, dating from 1956, and is, of course, an ominous decline, in part at the root of the present socioeconomic crisis, and Warren is its prophet. Amen.)

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P/S 4: The British government accepted that France was not part of its dominion only in 1815 CE. So the “100 year war” (officially 1337-1453 or 1337-1558, when Calais fell back in official French hands) lasted nearly 500 years. It was originally a French civil war between the Plantagenet and the Valois (with right being on the British side). In 1940, the Prime Minister, Churchill proposed the (re-)unification of France and Britain as one country, but the idiotic French PM declined. Nowadays, British and French are European Union citizens, and are getting quickly more unified than ever.

***

P/S 5: The European Middle Ages has bad reputation as a period of strife, and it’s entirely unjustified. It is the rise of religious hatred in Europe that caused the strife, and that was at the end of the Middle Ages (and it was inaugurated by the Crusade against the Toulouse County). The religious wars of the fifteenth and sixteenth century had a base in political power struggles, but the mobs got really driven mad by various variants of the Judeo-Christian faith. This went on for two centuries, and killing children or infants was standard. Although religion got clamped down in the end, some of the losses were so high that hatred kept on going. A tradition of hating France appeared in Germany in no small reason because of the massive French intervention in the “Thirty Year War” of the seventeenth century, which was a religious war, probably the worst of them all. This is clear from the writings of the German philosopher Herder [the anti-Goethe], that had a great nationalistic, homicidal influence [all the way to Hitler]. Thus the huge wars that happened later (mostly propelled by Napoleonic and Prussian fascisms) were, at least partially, consequences of, and echoes from, the period of religious wars earlier on.   

***

P/S 6: THE MEDITERRANEAN UNION AS SOLUTION:

Is a long term peaceful solution possible to the question of Israel? Sure. But one has to get the religions back in their cages underground first, and throw away the key.

Second, the solution will have to be imposed by force, say by the future imperial might of the (inchoating) Euro-Mediterranean Union. The idea would be to recreate basically the Roman empire (minus the crazy homicidal Christian rule of the late empire), with Israel as a precious asset, a larger version of the United Arab Emirates, a rich province profitable to its neighbors. By force, we mean legal force (preferably), a more muscular version of the force used in the EU construction.  

The EU construction is made to make local antagonisms irrelevant, and local democracy, with full democratic institutions, a necessity. Turkey has been trying, for half a century to satisfy the EU requirements; several of the Latin and Mediterranean dictatorships (Greece, Spain, Portugal) became democracies to gain EU access. A full Mediterranean Union could duplicate the process, making the Israeli-Arab conflict irrelevant and obsolete. Fundamentally the Jews are just a tribe that was pushed out of Arabia, so, please grow up, and forget about your personal direct access to God, each of you.

It has been in the interest of the USA to support the European Union construction (because the EU extends to all of Europe the Franco-British democratic core, genitor to the USA, and, if nothing else, the USA will not have to come to the military rescue of France and Britain once again). For similar reasons, it is in the interest of the USA to push for the Mediterranean Union (a Sarkozy idea that has been mollified at this point). Ultimately, and naturally, the Mediterranean Union would get incorporated within the EU.

Cynics will wonder how many divisions the future Mediterranean Union has. Well, just wait. As it is, about half of the NATO force in Afghanistan is not American (there are even some Arab forces). NATO may be better used, negotiating and retreating in Afghanistan while redeploying around Israel to enforce the secular law (there is already an important UN force in Lebanon doing just that; first headed by the French, then the Italians, it has more than 12,000 soldiers, plus an important naval arm). enough of the utopia of two states peacefully side by side: the time of a greater force has come.

***

The headquarters will now be housed in the Palace of Pedralbes

Deutsche Welle | Nov 4, 2008

The Spanish port city of Barcelona will become the headquarters for the Mediterranean Union, it was announced on Tuesday.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Aboul Gheit announced the location of the new union’s main office on Tuesday, Nov. 4, in Marseille.

Agreement on what had been a bone of contention among the 43 members of the union was reached during the two-day meeting of foreign ministers and other representatives from European Union members and Mediterranean states.

The meeting was held in the French city of Marseille because France currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency.

Royal accommodations

Malta and the Tunisian capital, Tunis, had also been in the running to host the group’s secretariat, which will bring status and jobs to the city. Tunis, the early favorite, might have proved too controversial because of the country’s dubious human rights record.

The headquarters will now be housed in the 17th-century Palace of Pedralbes, on the grounds of which stands a fountain created by the legendary Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi.

Arab League won’t get a vote

Kouchner said the foreign ministers had also agreed to allow the Arab League to participate at all future meetings of the group, but without any voting rights.

“The role of the Arab League was a particularly hard nut to crack,” the French foreign minister told journalists.

Egypt’s Gheit, however, called the decision to allow the Arab League to sit in on meetings “a historic moment.”

Israel had lobbied against a more influential role for the Arab League, and reminded delegates to the meeting that not all of its members were situated on the Mediterranean.

France, Egypt to act as co-presidents

France and Egypt are to hold the union’s co-presidency for two years, even though the Czech Republic will assume the EU presidency on Jan. 1.

“We need stability,” Kouchner said.

It was also decided that the Union for the Mediterranean’s general secretary is to come from a southern country, and that he or she would have five deputies, including one Palestinian and one Israeli.

The post was not filled, but Kouchner suggested that a Tunisian could be named.

Estonia: Mediterranean Union Sets Example for European Union Co-operation with Eastern Neighbours

ISRIA | Nov 5, 2008

Foreign Minister Urmas Paet participated in the meeting of the Mediterranean Union foreign ministers that took place on Tuesday, 4 November in Marseille, France. The foreign policy leaders talked about the future of Mediterranean Union co-operation.

To advance the Middle East peace process and accelerate co-operation in the region, the ministers approved the greater involvement of the League of Arab States in Mediterranean Union co-operation. “The Arab League plays a vital role in advancing the Middle East peace process, and including the League in Mediterranean Union co-operation will strengthen partnership and help with ensuring stability,” said Foreign Minister Urmas Paet.

According to the Estonian foreign minister, co-operation with states on the southern and eastern banks of the Mediterranean sets a good example for European Union co-operation with its neighbours to the east. “Positive developments in the co-operation between the European Union and its Mediterranean partners creates a good situation for implementing a similar model with the European Union’s eastern partners, especially Ukraine and Georgia, for their more rapid integration into European Union co-operation structures,” said Foreign Minister Paet.

The foreign ministers agreed to establish the Mediterranean Union Secretariat in Barcelona. The European Union’s partnership with the countries on the southern bank of the Mediterranean, which was established in Barcelona in 1995, was the foundation for the creation of the Mediterranean Union in the summer of this year.

The ministers also discussed the implementation of Mediterranean Union projects. At the Paris summit on 13 June 2008, it was agreed to initiate co-operation projects for reducing pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, developing sea traffic and land transport, using solar energy, protecting citizens in the case of a natural disaster, promoting higher education, and supporting small businesses.

The Mediterranean Union includes all European Union member states and countries along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

Foreign Minister Paet also met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in Marseille yesterday. At the meeting, they discussed the status of Turkey’s accession negotiations with the European Union.

A media circus was in full swing as U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was greeted in the Middle East and Europe as a political superstar in late July 2008. But a potentially far more important development in that part of the world the week before garnered little attention…

The New Mediterranean Union: Seeds of a New Roman Empire?

I ran across this article on Joel Rosenberg blog.  I had heard nothing of this in the media and it seems very intriguing what this is setting up for future events.  Below I have posted part of Joel’s article.

An intriguing new geopolitical entity was born over the weekend that could in ways small and large dramatically change the course of Europe and the Middle East in the years ahead. At a series of ceremonies in Paris — in a palace overlooking the River Seine — leaders from 43 countries comprising 756 million people met officially to form the “Mediterranean Union,” to fight terrorism, end WMD proliferation, enhance regional security, and promote free trade, economic development, and tourism. The brainchild of French President Nicolas Sarkzozy, the M.U. is certainly not a formal military or economic alliance by any stretch. Not yet, at least. But significantly, it does include all the nations of the European Union, Israel and all the countries of North Africa. The sole exception is Libya, whose leader, Muammar Gadaffi, denounced the organization as the rise of a “another Roman Empire.”Gadaffi is right.

We at Big News are still awaiting word as to when iO West will reopen. Right now our next show is scheduled for Sunday, August 3 at 9pm. But the layoff hasn’t stopped our writers from writing jokes about the events of the day – and while we may not have a theater in which to present them, we do have the good ol’ Internet!

The Obama campaign has objected to a cartoon on the cover of the New Yorker that depicts him as a Muslim and his wife as a radical black activist. Obama was upset mostly because his depiction was not wearing a flag pin.

The Obama campaign has objected to a cartoon on the cover of the New Yorker that depicts him as a Muslim and his wife as a radical black activist. Objecting to cartoons inside the New Yorker: golfers, doctors and squiggly people with marital problems.

In a speech this week, Barack Obama said that the war in Iraq distracts Americans from the threat of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Obama added that the war distracts Americans from an even bigger threat: cartoonists.

On Friday, former Sen. Phil Gramm gave up his position as economic advisor to the McCain campaign, a week after saying the United States was a “nation of whiners.” In resigning, Gramm pointed out that he’d realized we’re more of a nation of quitters.

Pope Benedict says that the world’s natural resources are being squandered in the pursuit of “insatiable consumption.” In addition, other natural resources are being squandered in order to make the pope’s hat.

After a meeting, President Bush stated that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is a “smart guy.” In supporting his opinion, Bush pointed out that Medvedev had mastered the difficult language of Russian.

According to a new survey, only 21% of Americans are in favor of federal aid for those facing foreclosures. The other 79% did not respond to the survey because it was not sent to the box where they currently live.

A new poll of American Jews reveals that 90% think the country is on the wrong track. But for you, 85%.

A new poll of American Jews reveals that 90% think the country is on the wrong track. Although maybe they wouldn’t if you called once in a while.

World leaders at the G-8 conference have agreed to cut in half the amount of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. President Bush said the U.S. will do its part on cutting gas emissions by shutting down all Taco Bells.

The United States military has a shortage of linguists fluent in the languages spoken in Afghanistan: Dari, Pashto, Uzbek, and Turkmen. The United States government likewise has a shortage of presidents fluent in English.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that under state law, sex acts with the dead were illegal. As a result, groupies will not have sex with the band after the next Rolling Stones concert in Milwaukee.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that under state law, sex acts with the dead were illegal. Anyone convicted will receive a stiff sentence.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that under state law, sex acts with the dead were illegal. In light of the news, Larry King and his wife have cancelled their second honeymoon in Milwaukee.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that under state law, sex acts with the dead were illegal. However, it remains legal in Wisconsin for quarterbacks with dead careers to screw their former team.

A 33-year-old Michigan man is accused of wearing a “World’s Greatest Dad” shirt to a meeting for sex with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl. In his defense, the man pointed out that under “World’s Greatest Dad,” the shirt said in smaller letters “at having sex with 14-year-old girls.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans for a Mediterranean Union funded by the European Union and aimed at ending poverty, strife and other social and diplomatic problems in former French colonies in Northern Africa. The plans are all part of France’s new “You Break It, You Buy It” policy.

A Japanese labor bureau has ruled that a Toyota engineer died from working too many hours on the development of a Camry hybrid. Ironically, the new vehicle is designed to run on a combination of gasoline, electricity, and the ashes of dead Japanese engineers.

US Airways says it will start removing in-flight entertainment systems on domestic flights in November to save about $10 million annually in fuel and other costs. This decision will also save millions of lives once passengers are no longer forced to watch “Drillbit Taylor.”

US Airways says it will start removing in-flight entertainment systems on domestic flights in November to save about $10 million annually in fuel and other costs. US Airways is currently the only airline that uses gasoline-powered movies.

US Airways will start removing in-flight entertainment systems on domestic flights in November to save about $10 million annually in fuel and other costs. The airline loses money due to flights being delayed when passengers yell “There’s a bomb on board!” every time a Dane Cook movie is shown.

Angelina Jolie gave birth to twins Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline on July 12. Jolie is healthy but disappointed, since with twins she figured odds were at least one of them would not be white.

The National Enquirer is reporting that sixty-two-year-old Cher plans to marry an ex-Hell’s Angel nearly half her age. Her fiancé is still five times older than anything on Cher’s face.

Metallica will make the songs on their next CD available for download to play on Guitar Hero III. The download will include also allow players to engage in interactive group therapy sessions.

Sarah Jessica Parker’s trademark mole has been removed from the actress’s face. “I no longer wanted to walk around being seen with that hideous thing,” said the mole.

Miss USA Crystle Stewart fell down during Monday’s Miss Universe contest. Stewart fell as part of the talent competition while doing her impression of the U.S. dollar.

Miss USA Crystle Stewart fell down during Monday’s Miss Universe contest. She also misspelled her first name.

A new report suggests that babies conceived from frozen embryos are just as healthy as those conceived naturally. Except for the freezer burn.

A new report suggests that babies conceived from frozen embryos are just as healthy as those conceived naturally. They also come in an assortment of fruity flavors.

Last month, the 38th annual Gay Pride Parade was held in San Francisco. And, girl, she does not look a day over 25.

Last month, the 38th annual Gay Pride Parade was held in San Francisco. Residents celebrated by dancing in the streets, dressing outrageously, and otherwise behaving as they do every other day.

According to a new study, men who eat too many fatty foods can have hurt their sperm production. The decrease often goes unnoticed, as none of the overweight men has seen their penises in years.

According to a new study, men who eat too many fatty foods can hurt their sperm production. Nutritionists recommend that overweight men switch to fresh fruit while surfing internet porn.

The nation’s DNA tracking system faces a huge backlog that could take years to clear, leaving crimes unsolved and offenders free in society. The cause of the backlog: the massive workload of paternity tests from The Maury Povich Show.

The World Heritage List has added eight new natural wonders. The list includes the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, the Lagoons of New Caledonia, and Jessica Alba’s career.

An epidemic of cancer is forcing Tasmanian devils to breed earlier. The efforts are proving unsuccessful since the Tasmanian devils want only to breed with rabbits dressed in drag.

Bangkok, Thailand was voted the world’s best city in a poll conducted by Travel + Leisure magazine, trumping last year’s winner, Florence, Italy. Bangkok’s victory was attributed to the fact that most readers of Travel + Leisure magazine are pedophiles.

Bangkok, Thailand was voted the world’s best city in a poll conducted by Travel + Leisure magazine, trumping last year’s winner, Florence, Italy. In an effort to win back the title, Florence has launched an intensive campaign to teach all women in the city how to shoot ping-pong balls out of their vaginas.

Bangkok, Thailand was voted the world’s best city in a poll conducted by Travel + Leisure magazine, trumping last year’s winner, Florence, Italy. Bangkok’s victory was attributed to the fact the only reader of Travel + Leisure magazine is Murray Head.

Bangkok, Thailand was voted the world’s best city in a poll conducted by Travel + Leisure. Bangkok was also voted the best city in a poll conducted by Pedophile Weekly.

Bangkok, Thailand was voted the world’s best city in a poll conducted by the magazine Travel + Leisure. Bangkok residents praised the magazine, saying for once it’s nice that someone gave them a “happy ending.”

And finally, Evelyn Keyes, the actress who played Scarlett O’Hara’s younger sister Suellen in the classic 1939 film “Gone With the Wind,” died of uterine cancer July 4 in Montecito at age 91. While fans had hoped Keyes would live to 92, frankly, she didn’t give a damn.

          The locus of international focus has meandered from Pipelineistan to the sunny shores of the Mediterranean, thanks to our favorite Presidential Imp, Nicolas Sarkozy.  For whatever reason, the husband of Carla –Wow! – Bruni has decided that the Med is just the place to zip up the gaping seam that has for centuries kept the North of that sea in a perennial state of imperialism (be it political, economic or cultural) and the south as subluxated as Cinderella. Consider these pertinent northern rim attendees of Sarkozy’s Med Ball: Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, the Balkans (Croatia, Bosnia, Albania et all regardless of the fact that they are actually located on the Adriatic Sea) and Greece. The southern Belles include Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, while eastern and otherwise uncategorized wallflowers include Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and…drum roll, please, for the elephant in the room… Israel.

          All in all there will be some 40 participants in this new union which, pragmatically for a beginner, aims mostly cheerful efforts at such targets as student exchanges, renewable energy projects and cleaning up the sea.  Presumably the more nettlesome issues like immigration and terrorism will be taken up after the initial tea-party in which flags are waved and diversity is given sprightly applause. The turnout for this phase was impressive, including either heads of state or actual big-wigs (as opposed to supposed ones) from all the attendees, with the notable exception of Muammar Qaddafi of Libya, who boycotted the meeting over fears that it was naught but a resurgence of ham-handed colonialism. And who’s to say he’s wrong? It’s hard to say if he’ll show up once the gloves come off, but it’s safe to say that in the past he’s had a hard time passing up an opportunity to scrap. Whoever shows up, it’s also safe to say that after the tea party, Israel’s elephantine presence will not be politely ignored. The Mahgreb may be chock-full of dictators, but they, nevertheless, have their standards.

          Angela Merkel, Prime Minister of Germany wasn’t too happy about the whole Club Med thing, either. Germany, of course, has a seaside view, but it’s of the Baltic and North Seas, not the Mediterranean, so why should they care about Club Med? Well, what with Sarkozy being in charge of the rotating EU Presidency while also taking time out for an historic photo-op with Israeli PM Ehud Olmert in one hand and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the other, he’s gotten quite a bit of notice in diplomatic circles of late.   The Francocentric antics of Sarkozy have put him smack dab in the middle of the lime light, perhaps leaving Merkel a bit green with the envy of a middle child tired of watching favored siblings wrest yet another round of applause from doting parents.

          Nevertheless, France and Germany have patched things up to some degree, since the EU will be financing Club Med’s activities, and Germany is not only a primary dues-payer there, but an avuncular mentor of up-and-coming Turkey. Turkey, of course, can be seen to be the real impetus for France’s jump-starting the Club Med process now, after it languished in the shadows for the last 10 years.  Sarkozy has been not just outspoken, but positively irascible in his opposition to EU accession for Turkey (I wonder if Bush’s nickname for Nicolas would be “Snarky Sark”? Nah.).  You might say (and plenty have) that in pumping up Club Med, he’s throwing Turkey a bone to distract it from the probability that it will never join the EU –“ So quit asking!” But he’d better watch out, for he might have just jump-started the engine that will ultimately take him out in the demolition derby that is international diplomacy.  Lest we forget: all of the North African members of Club Med and all of the middle Eastern ones (with the notable exception of Israel and the even more notable inclusion of Iran) are also members of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM), which was established in the 50s as an antidote to imperialism, colonialism, hegemony and power bloc politics in general.  With Turkey and a number of Balkan states now sporting observer status, NAM might just be on course to becoming its own power bloc in and around the shores of the azure Mediterranean, and the EU aint invited to that ball. It may be true that “you got to dance with them what brung you”, in the words of the inestimable, unsinkable and fondly remembered Molly Ivens, but not necessarily all night long.

Read: “Sarkozy’s Mediterranean Union: Unifying the Divided.”

History: The Roadmap to the Future–Africa.

Read: Sarkozy’s Mediterranean Union: Unifying the Divided.

History: The Roadmap to the Future–Europe

Source: Reuters

Leaders of 43 countries from the European Union and the Mediterranean region met in Paris on Sunday for a first summit of the Union for the Mediterranean, an initiative launched by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The project is aimed at breathing new life into the existing Euro-Mediterranean partnership, known as the Barcelona process, and will create a more equal dialogue between the wealthy EU and the poorer states that line the Mediterranean.

Membership of the project is open to all states that border the Mediterranean, all members of the European Union, and some others. They represent a total of nearly one billion people.

The only national leaders who were invited but did not attend were Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, a vocal critic of the project and whose country did not send an envoy at all, and the kings of Jordan and Morocco, who both said they could not come for personal reasons.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa also attended.

The new organisation will have co-presidents from each side of the Mediterranean, initially France and Egypt, and a small secretariat, the location of which remains to be decided.

One of the main aims of the Mediterranean Union, which carries the official name “The Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean”, is to work on a series of practical projects, with each member state free to work on a project if it chooses.

These projects, outlined in an annex to the final joint declaration, includes:

* Civil protection — cooperating on the prevention, preparation and response to natural and man-made disasters

* Alternative energy — exploring the feasibility of a “Mediterranean Solar Plan” to develop solar power as an energy source, and supporting research and development into energy sources other than oil and gas. Lebanon offered at the summit to host the project’s headquarters.

* Education — setting up a Euro-Mediterranean University, based in Slovenia, promoting academic mobility and joint degrees between member states’ universities. French officials frequently refer to setting up an “Erasmus of the Mediterranean”, referring to a popular EU student exchange programme.

* Mediterranean business initiative — setting up a body to help small and medium-sized companies by providing them with technical assistance and “financial instruments”, using voluntary contributions from member states.

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

To download the joint declaration (as a pdf file), click here.

I was pleased to learn that over the weekend French President Nicholas Sarkozy aggressively took charge of the peace process for the Middle East (i.e Israel vs. Everyone Else). His move to create a new ‘Mediterranean Union’, while having many practical benefits, seems to be targeted primarily at Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Initially concentrated on infrastructure and energy projects such as making north Africa a hub for solar power, Sarkozy’s grand initiative is acutely political, claiming a pole position for France in European foreign policy-making after years of drift and seeking to redirect policy from the east of Europe to the south.

I think this move is an important step and my sincere hope is that France will continue to lead on this. I think it’s time for the U.S. to take a step back from the peace process because it is impossible for us to claim to be neutral. We have made our commitment to Israel clear for decades and I don’t think we can be an honest broker in light of that. Additionally, the Bush administration is on life support at this stage and their political clout, especially abroad, does not amount to much. A too little-too late effort at securing peace (and a more positive legacy) is going to be seen for what it is and I would expect little success. Perhaps this effort by the French will be received differently though.

Progressivism is about getting the job done. If we want this job done, we need to hand off the ball to someone else, someone fresher and someone who both parties can feel on equal footing with.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the disparate and conflicted countries around the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday to make peace as European rivals did in the 20th century, as he launched an unprecedented Union for the Mediterranean.

“The European and the Mediterranean dreams are inseparable,” Sarkozy told leaders from more than 40 nations in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. “We will succeed together; we will fail together.”

The union Sarkozy championed as a pillar of his presidency brought together around one table for the first time dignitaries such rival nations as Israel and Syria, Algeria and Morocco, Turkey and Greece.

Coping with age-old enmities involving their peoples and others along the Mediterranean shores will be a central challenge to the new union encompassing some 800 million people.

A draft declaration obtained by The Associated Press shows that summit participants will announce “objectives of achieving peace, stability and security” in the region. The six firm measures it names include a region-wide solar energy project, a cross-Mediterranean student exchange program and a plan to clean up the polluted sea.

The draft declaration says the Union for the Mediterranean is to be operational by the end of this year, and unlike any previous body, it will be jointly run by all its members. It will have a dual presidency, held jointly for rotating terms by one country within the European Union and one country on the Mediterranean shore.

The draft also speaks of democratic principles, human rights and fundamental freedoms — values Western critics have accused such union members as Syria of violating.

The new union is to include at least 43 nations, nearly all of which sent a president or prime minister to the summit. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi objected to the whole idea and refused to come

THis was proposed in the 90’s I believe by Turkey, but for some reason it was not a popular proposal, but now it is.  I ask why?  Is there already enough organizations on the market?

Gordon Brown went off to Paris today determined to persuade his EU counterparts to tighten the screws on Zimbabwe — quite right too, in view of the disgraceful volte-face by Russia re sanctions and the more predictable veto from China in the UN Security Council. But for the host of the Paris Summit, Nicolas Sarkozy, more important is the launch of his concept of a Mediterranean Union, grouping the entire EU with all the other countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. This idea came under fire when it seemed to be just targetted at southern European countries and their Mediterranean neighbours, but now that it has become the Barcelona Process with knobs on, it is a much more viable proposition. Moreover, President Sarkozy has seized the initiative in trying to coax some advance in the dealings between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Good luck to him.

The only spoilsport is Libya’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who has denounced the whole thing as a neo-colonial exercise. This is a shame, as Libya definitely has a potentially positive role to play, but the regime in Tripoli is sadly too blinkered to appreciate this.

From The Economist:

Already there is substance in the haze. The Mediterranean’s southern and eastern coasts are pulling in huge quantities of foreign direct investment, on a scale second only to China among emerging economies (see chart 1). The wave started about five years ago (…).

This is not the story usually told about the Mediterranean’s poorer coasts. The MEDA ten (a group of southern and eastern economies) have an average income per head of only $6,200, putting them roughly where western Europe was in 1950 and Romania was in 1975. Even though the gap in GDP per head has been closing, thanks to falling fertility rates as well as relatively faster economic growth, at today’s pace it would take almost 160 years for the MEDA ten to catch up with the European Union average. Unemployment is probably between 20% and 30%, even though official figures say it is around 12%.

This last figure helps to explain why Europeans have tended to see the other side of the sea as more of a threat than an opportunity: a source of immigrants, often young and illegal, mainly Muslim and frequently unwelcome. In Italy, Spain and tiny Malta, illegal arrivals are of especial concern. Another reason is nervousness about the region’s political health. Work your way around the map below and you will find few true democracies and much instability, actual or potential.

Yet commerce is scarcely a novelty in the Mediterranean. Centuries ago, the Middle Sea was a hub of world trade: to the Romans, it became mare nostrum—“our sea”—surrounded by the empire. Now the inflow of foreign direct investment may be reversing a long relative decline in the fortunes of the southern and eastern shores. The MEDA economies have managed to step up their growth rates to 4.4% since the turn of the century. A summit to be held in Paris this weekend may give the Mediterranean’s revival a further push.

(…) Twenty years ago, Europe’s car industry stopped building new factories in low-wage Spain and Portugal, and turned to eastern Europe, including Turkey. The step across the Med, to a country where wages are one-fifth of what they are on the northern shore, is of great significance. (…) Now the capital is moving to the labour: the mountain is moving to Muhammad, if you will.

Related readings: Mediterranean, EU nations to boost ties with grand new union.

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