ACROSS THE POND
Help Us, America!
Germany is finding George W. Bush harder to hate.
WSJ.com OpinionJournal
BY MATHIAS DOPFNER
Sunday, March 6, 2005 12:01 a.m.
BERLIN--A trip of smiles: During George W. Bush's visit here last month, there was more joking, embracing and smiling than there had been in a long time. The president laughed when he arrived and laughed when he left. Mr. Bush and Gerhard Schroeder laughed when they linked arms for the "Prussian Grenadier's March." The chancellor joked that he and the American president had agreed only to talk about subjects on which they agreed. And the American president joked when he asked the German foreign minister, "What's your name again?" Joschka Fischer. "Oh yes, and my name is George Bush."
The mood was good at a state visit whose circumstances could hardly be more serious. For the German-American relationship has sustained lasting damage, and Europe's role is pitiful when it comes to combating international terrorism, pacifying the Middle East and defending the free West against Islamic fundamentalism. One got the impression that a lot had to be smiled away.
A trip of tears: When German President Horst Koehler left Yad Vashem a few weeks earlier, during a state visit to Israel, his eyes were red from crying. and in his moving speech to the Israeli Parliament, the German head of state's tear-choked voice broke as he said, "I bow down before the victims in shame and humility."
Later, the opposition leader and Holocaust survivor Tommy Lapid spoke to a small group about how difficult he had found it to defend a German's speech in the German language. He had asked himself again and again what his father, murdered in the concentration camps, would have thought--the father who had been arrested by the Gestapo and who had taken leave of his 11-year-old son with the words "Perhaps I will see you again, but perhaps not." And then Mr. Lapid said into the stillness, "But today I believe he would have approved." At that moment, everyone had tears in their eyes.
The tears and the laughter must be followed by deeds. For the trips by the German and American presidents took place in the midst of a key phase of the peace process in the Middle East. The message that the German brought home from Israel was clear: Help us! We need Europe. and in Europe we especially need Germany. Germany should have sent Mr. Bush the same message: Help us. We need America!
Instead, not much substance could be seen. No alliances were forged. After Mr. Bush learned that Mr. Schroeder's "unconditional solidarity" in the Iraq war could be traded in after a few weeks for anti-American campaign tactics, promises did not have the highest priority. But did the trip really not bring anything more than a more relaxed atmosphere? I think it did. It could become a turning point in the perception of the American president.
Germany currently finds itself experiencing a resurgence of its old anti-Americanism. Or better put, its anti-Americanisms, since there has always been both a left-wing, anti-capitalist and a right-wing nationalist, culturally conservative variety. A new anti-Americanism has been added in the younger generation: the idea being to live American, but talk anti-American. Surveys show that some 50% of the population is in the grip of this phenomenon. Nine out of 10 Germans dislike Mr. Bush. Vladimir Putin is more trusted in this country than the American president. Only 44% think that German foreign policy should be more closely coordinated with the U.S. and 70% are convinced that they no longer owe the Americans a debt for their help in rebuilding the country and in supporting reunification. This is the bad news. The good news: the German case is different from France. France is lost, from a trans-Atlantic point of view. Germany is still uncertain--that is, it can be won. For the Germany that has emerged from the postwar shadow has no real foreign policy concept.
It is on policy toward the Middle East that Germany will have to show its true colors. Torn between France's default anti-American, pro-Palestinian position and Britain, which in case of doubt stands with America and Israel, Germany wavers, a trembling tipper of Europe's scales. On the one hand, shamed by its past, Germany is always on Israel's side morally. But whenever that might cost Germany anything--courage in security policy or economic interests--it likes to escape into the empty concept of equidistance, an inflated term for indecision.
Many consider a clear European-American alliance on the side of Israel to be too risky. This second-tier power, Germany, shaken by all sorts of complexes, anxiously probes other options: Whether it should perhaps find alternatives in alliances with Russia and France? This would not work. The French would laugh themselves silly if the Germans were to help create a French Europe (as we know, there is not the slightest interest in a European France). But the Russians, at least on this issue, might be more easily brought into an American-European alliance than many believe.
President Putin insisted, in a conversation with me 3 1/2 weeks ago, that there was by no means any wish to take a position against America. Europe, Russia and America had far too many common interests, and most of all a common enemy: Islamic fundamentalism. As with Mr. Bush, religion--the Christian religion--seems to play an ever greater role as a cultural link for Mr. Putin. In Hezbollah and Hamas, he sees a mirror image of Chechen terror commandos. (This makes it even harder to understand why the European public has more sympathy for Russian reprisals against Chechnya than for the security fence with which Israel has protected itself against Palestinian suicide bombers.)
Part of the current "window of opportunity" in the Middle East is the death of Yasser Arafat. The momentum has been furthered by Mahmoud Abbas and Ariel Sharon, the old hawk, who has only one goal--peace and security for his people in his lifetime--and who is the only one who can achieve a compromise with the Israeli right. A deal between the hard right and Mr. Sharon is step one. Step two is a deal between Israel and America. Step three is a deal between America and Europe, on a common position which is key to a sustainable peace in the Middle East. The main purpose behind Mr. Bush's visit was to prepare the ground for that peace, since the missing ingredient so far has been Europe, especially Germany. and Germany is starting to realize that if there is no joint position on this issue, there will be only one winner: Islamic fundamentalism.
George Bush is an underestimated American president for whom a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a simple corollary of his courageous political vision: the defense of freedom and democracy against Islamic fundamentalism, not only with words, but also with deeds. Added to this, and in contrast to his first term, he is pursuing this idea in harmony with the State Department, together with Condoleezza Rice. Supported by Tony Blair, America--the world power--is determined to defend the free West. Many Europeans, in contrast, stand on the sidelines and confuse multicultural tolerance with tolerance toward the intolerant.
What would these Europeans say if, in four years, the Bush balance sheet even approaches the following scenario: An independent Palestinian state in stable coexistence with Israel; freedom of opinion prevails in Iraq and the people still vote; Iran has no nuclear weapons; al Qaeda is destabilized; the number of terrorist attacks world-wide continues to decrease; and the American economy is flourishing as a result of determined domestic reforms and tax cuts.
What a turnabout, if the cliché of the reactionary cowboy is replaced by the image of a misjudged but later admired fighter for freedom! When Mr. Bush arrived in Europe, he quoted from his second inaugural address: "We cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time. We must reject anti-Semitism from any source, and we must condemn violence such as we have witnessed in the Netherlands. All our nations must work to integrate minorities into the mainstream of society, and to teach the value of tolerance to each new generation." The Germans couldn't believe their ears. No, they won't immediately give up their anti-Americanism after this visit. But the smiling, congenial George Bush made their dislike a little more difficult to defend.
Mr. Döpfner is chairman and CEO of Axel Springer AG, publisher of Die Welt and Bild Zeitung. (Translated by Belinda Cooper.)
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