EUROPEAN/AMER ICAN RELATION S: WHO LEADS?
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Peter Wood:
I'm sure we a ll are pleased that the next speaker is
not
an
American intellectual. Conor Cruise O'Brien is an immensely talented
and accomp li shed intellectual from Ireland who has served in the Irish
Parliament. He ha s written over twenty books, most recently
God Land.
His memoir is still widely read and is an important document on mod–
ern European civi lization. His interests have always included American
life, and he is especia ll y known for his many contributions to the
New
York Review of Books.
Conor Cruise O'Brien is speaking on "America
Leads, but Will Europe Foll ow?"
Conor Cruise O'Brien:
Good afternoon. When I prepared this talk,
which follows the title you have just heard,
r
was thinking primarily of
the Middle East, and the division between Washington and the princi–
pal countries in the European continent over policy towards Israel. I
was go ing to point out that the European policy of backing Arafat
makes no sense at a ll , since Arafat has far less authority in Palestine
than bodies like Hamas, open ly committed to war with Israel and now
urging such a war. Recently, when Arafat was under arrest, powerless
and a symbol of Arab powerlessness, he ac hi eved a return of popular–
ity, but since his recent release his popularity has again plummeted, as
articles in today's newspapers amp ly demonstrate.
I've not changed those views, but I have recently become aware of
proposals which, if fully implemented, could greatly fortify Israel's posi–
tion and render the position of Israel's European critics, or rather ene–
mies, irrelevant and without power to influence events. Some of the
proposals I have in mind emanate from North Lebanon, from Christian
Arab sources traditionally friendly to Israel, who are now engaged in a
kind of marriage of convenience with the city and authorities. The main
element in these proposals concerns Arab migrant labor working in
Israel. The great majority of these migrant workers come to Israel to
earn their li ving and have no political agenda, but they involuntarily
provide a screen behind which a small minority of terrorists can pene–
trate Israel. The terrorists, dressing like Arab migratory laborers, can
rarely be distinguished by Israeli officials from the harmless workers
among whom they move. Under that cover, they can move until they
reveal their identity by ferocious suicide bombings, indiscriminantly
against Jewish civilians, and many times repeated, causing at present a
very great crisis. The Lebanese have suggested to the Israelis that they
replace the Arab migrants with migratory labor from places like India
and Sri Lanka, where the population is immune to the anti-Israel feeling
