12:26 PM
Politico Axis of Envy

Under the heading of Axis of Envy, there's this article that makes some excellent points about anti-US and anti-Israel sentiment in Europe (and is also applicable to the Middle East and other parts of the world as well):

Israel and the United States are the most successful states in their respective neighborhoods: Israel in the regional arena, the United States on the global beat. They boast the most fearsome armies, they command impressive technological infrastructures, and the Israeli economy vastly outperforms those of each of its neighbors while the United States has the world's number one economy. Moreover, both are stable, vibrant democracies. One need not invoke Dr. Sigmund Freud to infer that success breeds envy and resentment. The resentment is compounded by the rampant modernity both countries epitomize. Relentless change, as inflicted from outside, does not sit well with European societies, which obey a very different social contract-one that favors social and economic protection against the effects of the market and rapid technological transformation. The unconscious syllogism goes like this: Globalization is Americanization, and both have found their most faithful disciple in Israel.

And this "rampant modernity", this "relentless change" is something I've never been fond of anyway. There's a lot to be said for continuity, for keeping ties with the past, such as Europe and other countries older than ours. As we relentlessly charge forward, gulping down each new thing with alacrity, we forget who we have been, who our parents and grandparents and five generations before that have been.

I'm not talking about the baby boomers fascination with the 60's and the "good old days when they changed the world" with some rallies and marches and pot and rock and roll. I'm talking about responsibility and history, both personal, familial and societal. A sense of connection with the past, with the people who came before, 20 years before, 50 years before, 100 years before and a sense of responsibility to their lives and the priniciples they valued.

Tom Brokaw touches on it with the book he wrote about the "Best Generation" but I think it goes further than that, back to the immigrants, to the founding fathers and before them, the pilgrims and pioneers who settled here, who struggled to get here and once here, struggled to make lives, to earn a living and not just make a better life for their kids but also to raise them up to be better people, not just richer monetarily.

The United States and Israel may not be unique, but they stand out because of their strong senses of national identity. For all their multiculturalism-indeed, both the United States and Israel are microcosms of the world-these two countries share a keen sense of self. They know who they are and what they want to be. They define themselves not through ethnicity but through ideologies that transcend class and tribe. Or to use a less charged term, they define themselves in terms of documents, be it the Torah or the U.S. Constitution. Their senses of nationality are rooted in the law, as received at Sinai or promulgated in Philadelphia.

Exactly! As we strive to encompass all ethnicities and religions, we also lose those ties that ethnicity and religion can give. And our sense of nationality is too young yet to sufficiently replace those ties as strongly. We tend to be united in our differences which only serves to point up our differences, not to strengthen us as a group.

So we are more ready to use force to prove our unity:

Because Israel and the United States are still national societies, they do not hesitate to back up their interests with force. Indeed, no Western nation has ever used force as frequently as have those two in the last 50 years.

Guns and missiles do not make families, they destroy them.