Bret Stephens on Germany
Bret Stephens of the Jerusalem Post provides a thoughtful analysis of the new Germany. Stephens is upbeat. He notes that the popularity rating of the execrable Chancellor Schroeder hovers at about 23 percent. Although this "mainly is on account of his hapless economic management," Stephens also finds that "many Germans, including opponents of the war, realize their long-term diplomatic interests have not been served by their Chancellor's short-term political calculations." Stephens also believes that Germany has not "shown any signs of creeping anti-Semitism of the kind so evident in Belgium and France. After conservative parliamentarian Martin Hohmann commented that Jews were a Taetervolk – a 'race of perpetrators' – he was instantly expelled from his party. Even in extreme anti-globalization circles, German activists refuse to join their counterparts from Italy, Spain and France in invoking anti-Semitic themes."
Personally, I am less sanguine about Germany than Stephens is. For example, the fact that Schroeder's "short term political calculations" consisted of winning re-election by bashing American foreign policy is not terribly reassuring. On the other hand, Stephens, who is married to a German, knows much more about the subject than I do.
