SHOSHANA BRYEN: Look Europe In The Eye

Are you repelled by Europe – Spain, France, the U.K., Ireland, and more? Outraged by the lies and distortions? Sick of them ignoring Hamas/UNRWA terrorism and war crimes, while endlessly moaning about things that are not happening? Horrified (though not surprised) by rampant antisemitism?

Then do something else.

Consider the world in which the Europeans live.

President Trump announced a trade deal with the European Union (EU) – some tariffs here, fewer tariffs there, some investment here, some required purchases there.  The EU, he said, “is going to agree to purchase from the United States $750 billion worth of energy. They are going to agree to invest into the United States $600 billion more than they’re investing already.”

This is, as the President would say, UUUUGE. First, because it works to level a playing field designed when the Europeans were coming out of the wreckage of WWII (Thank you, Allied armies). The EU took full economic advantage to protect its industries and hamstring ours. OK, for a couple of decades, but enough.

It is also important because it meshes with American increases in energy production. In the first Trump administration, the US turned the corner on production and export as well as filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Gas averaged $2.60/gal in 2019 . [President Biden emptied about half of the SPR by 2023, but we’re back.] Europe, on the other hand, imports more than 58% of its energy needs.

Better from the US than from Russia.

There is more.

President Trump added, “They’re agreeing to purchase a vast amount of military equipment.” Again, using the post-WWII European poverty model, NATO has underfunded its military establishment and relied on the U.S. since 1949.  Now, NATO has agreed to increase military spending to 5% of GDP. True, not until 2035, but we need time to ramp up production as well.

EU President Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged negotiations with Trump were tough. “I knew it at the beginning, and it was indeed very tough. But we came to a good conclusion for both sides… (the deal) will bring stability. It will bring predictability. That’s very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.”

All good, but not the big news. That lies elsewhere.

While Europe and the United States are still allies, willing to talk about benefits to both sides, the EU seems to have recognized that, in their current form, long-term bi-continental economics do not favor them. Looking for balance, the EU decided to make a leap. To China. Not the “Great Leap,” fortunately, but a leap.

In a one-day EU-China summit, von der Leyn told China’s strongman Xi Jinping that, after 50 years, relations were at an “inflection point.” What she meant was that Europe’s  $360 billion trade deficit  with China has become unmanageable. According to an EU publication, “China’s economic model has brought about systemic distortions with negative spillovers to trading partners. According to the IMF, China’s use of industrial policies, notably its support to priority sectors, has an impact on trading partners.”

“As our co-operation has deepened, so have imbalances,” von der Leyen said.

In other words, China’s rapacious communist trade, production, and finance policies have an advantage over the Western model, both socialist and capitalist. She is not wrong, and the US has a similar problem with China. (Quick question: Which country is more likely to make a successful deal with Beijing?)  Xi, in response to her concerns, warned EU leaders to “make correct strategic choices.” They left with no deal and no plans.

So.

While Europe likes to think of itself as the center of civilization, it is watching several uncomfortable trends progress. The economic ones, with the US and China, are exacerbated by declining birth rates and increased immigration by newcomers not familiar with – or rejecting – European societal norms. Another trend is the devolution of European-drawn post-colonial borders in the Middle East and Africa. Shaky governments, decimated minorities, famine in Yemen and across parts of Africa, and an Iran that had increasingly ignored the West’s demands to shelve its nuclear program.

Israel is the anomaly. Its economy is booming despite the war. Its minorities are thriving. There is no famine – neither in Israel NOR IN GAZA. Israel is the regional strong horse.

The aggravation factor for former colonial powers has to be enormous. Rather than dealing with problems it created or exacerbated on two continents, and uncomfortably comfortable with antisemitism, a number of those irritated countries have decided to argue with the US and Israel. It is a poor choice of policy.

European antisemitism and support for terror organizations cannot be allowed to pass unnoticed by the US. It is time to look Europe in the eye and demand better.

Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Trump White House Archive/Creative Commons/Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse45/40468517663)