US President George W. Bush's most promising initiative, promoting democracy across the Middle East, was already dealt a crippling blow by US intervention in Iraq and the ensuing civil war there. Now the project is buried under the weight of the US' inability to protect Lebanon's fragile democracy and Palestine's democratic experiment.
The EU's feeble response to the warfare in Gaza and Lebanon has oscillated between understanding and condemnation of the disproportionate use of force by Israel -- described as "10 eyes for one" by the Finnish presidency -- thereby betraying its dependence on the US to end the violence. Europeans will have learned nothing from the damaging disunity, and thus weakness, that they displayed during the Iraq war if this conflict does not compel them to speak with one voice.
What is needed is a European initiative that is backed by a credible military deterrent, consisting of forces from the EU, Turkey and Arab countries, to be dispatched under a UN mandate to Lebanon and Gaza. Europe must not only put forward a clear demand for an immediate cease-fire and the end to Syrian and Iranian meddling in Lebanon, it must also provide the means to enforce it as well as massive support for Lebanon's reconstruction. The EU should decisively back the end of the embargo on Palestine and the creation of a Palestinian state.
A common European front could persuade the US to give Lebanon and Palestine enough time to consolidate their national democratic processes, thus isolating the radical elements of Hamas and steering Hezbollah to dissolution of its private army. With the US project in ruins, a credible European policy to delegitimize war and support democratization in its neighborhood has become essential.
Alvaro de Vasconcelos is the director of the Institute for International Affairs in Portugal.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
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