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I flew to Karachi at the end of December 2023, still confused by the EU’s collective indifference and complicity in Israel’s relentless destruction of Gaza and violent settlement policies in the West Bank.
I think two and a half weeks away from the Brussels bubble will provide some reassurance, and maybe even a much-needed sign that Europe still matters in a scarred and shattered world. I was hoping that there would be.
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“One of Pakistan’s top business leaders says that although the EU single market remains important, Europe’s political position is changing because of its negative attitude towards the Gaza war and von der Leyen’s “wholehearted” support for Israel.” He told me it was “zero”. ”
Instead, geopolitics followed me everywhere in its awful, omnipresent cruelty.
Only a few EU member states meaningfully condemned Israel as it killed, seriously injured and tortured Palestinians in collective punishment for the horrific Hamas attack on October 7 last year. So my role as an EU observer based in Brussels became a lightning rod. Everyone I’ve met: fellow travelers, diplomats and officials, business leaders, students, and family, friends, and colleagues.
EU policymakers looking to engage with the world outside the comfort zone of the West may be interested in some of the uncomfortable truths I have gleaned through often intense and heated conversations. do not have.
While on a Turkish Airlines flight from Brussels to Istanbul, a fellow passenger from Miami, who was attending his nephew’s wedding in Istanbul, shared a moral dilemma.
Given US President Joe Biden’s unflinching support for Israel, how could he, a Muslim, vote for the incumbent again?
“My family says Muslim Americans should not vote for Biden,” he said. “But how do you vote for an openly racist Donald Trump?”
At the vast Kemal Ataturk Airport, a young Dutch-Moroccan businessman heading to Dubai said his pregnant wife had instructed him to see if he could fly there from Rotterdam.
“She says we can’t live in Geert Wilder’s Holland,” he says.
I boarded a plane to Karachi. With the city and Pakistan in turmoil and elections scheduled for early February, I was sure the focus would be on domestic issues rather than geopolitics.
No such luck. Amid all the talk of domestic failures, there are constant references to the United States, (again) Wilders, and (believe it or not) European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The focus on America is not surprising. US-friendly Pakistani forces fighting a long-running insurgency in Pakistan’s vast and resource-rich Balochistan province, which borders Iran, have been accused of human rights abuses.
Most importantly, the popular and populist former Prime Minister Imran Khan (now in prison) holds the United States responsible for his predicament, a claim that enjoys widespread public support.
Fortunately, the EU has not been accused of such a crime.
But one of the country’s top business leaders says that while the EU single market remains important, the reluctance towards the Gaza war and von der Leyen’s “wholehearted” support for Israel have made Europe’s political He told me that his status was “zero.” .
I noticed that European products had all but disappeared from local supermarkets, replaced by products made in Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The boutique sells Chinese textiles and textiles.
Everyone says they no longer watch CNN or the BBC because of their perceived pro-Israel bias, but Al Jazeera’s strong reporters have become well-known.
Contrary to conventional Western thinking that the Global South is falling prey to Russian and Chinese propaganda, no one seems interested in watching RT or CGTN.
I believe that Europe’s collective refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and at the same time stop Israel’s brutal war against Hamas is hurting Europe’s standing across the Global South. I hear it over and over again.
“This will continue no matter what happens next,” warns a veteran journalist friend.
The West’s There is increasing talk of hypocrisy and double standards.
Friends watching Al Jazeera’s livestream of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel are asking why European television stations aren’t airing the case and why Europe isn’t willing to support Pretoria’s efforts. “It seems like a clear issue of whites versus blacks,” says a visiting American friend.
I return home to Brussels, more convinced than ever that we live in an irrevocably divided world.
The focus here remains on whether Biden or Donald Trump will win the upcoming November elections and what that means for the “future of Europe.”
Attempts to draw attention to the potential for permanent damage to the EU’s reputation in other parts of the world are dismissed as minor and temporary concerns.
Nothing has changed in this world of chicanery, and the West is still in charge, often literally.
This illusion is reinforced by the proliferation of Davos-like panel discussions and self-soothing narratives about “rebuilding trust.”
I wish it were that easy. The hard truth is that no matter how much self-righteous waffle we eat at Davos, it accurately reflects today’s alternative reality, which is vastly different between the complacent West and the confident and assertive Global South. This means that you will not be able to reconnect.
In the end, I felt happy with my friends and family in Karachi. There was also plenty of evidence that the EU still mattered, but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.
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