Democrats and star-struck adulators will remember Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin as something more than it actually was. “By this foreign policy speech will future ones be measured,” declared dKos editor Tim Lee Lange, and, well — not really. The truth is that the definitive statement on the speech is probably Jim Geraghty’s: he acknowledged that “[t]here was not a ton to object to, and indeed a lot to like,” and then challenged his readers to see whether they could distinguish its rhetoric from that of We Are the World. You can’t, and that’s the point. Barack Obama’s celebrity appeal is not (contrary to what he appears to believe) fueled wholly by his innate qualities: the elements of desperation and projection, powerfully amplified by his comparative lack of public accomplishment, build him into the apparent juggernaut — and thus enable him to travel to Berlin, deliver a thoroughly pedestrian speech, and receive adoration for it.

George Handlery on the week that was. Obama in Berlin: what is in the package? Russia’s permission is needed to defend Europe. Negotiating by not talking. America as an ally. Leopards and their spots. A convenient pretense: both sides are right. Minority rights and majority protection.
 
1. Obama in Berlin. It is an attractive venue as Berlin is a symbol of hanging on tough in moments when surrender appeared to some to be the easy and wise choice.  Watching the performance the excellent packaging makes a striking impression. Under the wrapper, a lot of space-filling Styrofoam. It protects a miniscule object. The hard-to-describe item has fuzzy contours. The crowd cheered loudly when fashionable slogans were fed to it. Especially the implied dropping of Iraq got approval. Notable is the reception of Obama’s inconsistent reference to “defeating terror’ in Afghanistan. The claim that America needs her European “partners” help there – to which Germany is officially committed – brings silence. This speaks loudly. It also lends credibility to the claim that Obama’s “wishy” instincts match Germany’s “washy” preferences. Great endorsement. Comforting reassurance for the correctness of the proposed path says the campaign. Poor America.

The arrest of Radovan Karadzic has predictably produced its crop of outrageous remarks from people who ought to know better but who, predictably, are incapable observing the niceties. Thus the likes of Lord Ashdown, Richard Holbrooke, David Miliband and a raft of others all speak of Karadzic as if he had already been tried and convicted. The little matter of holding a trial concerns them not.

George Handlery on the week that was. There is a hook at the end of the safety rope. The clash of religions: is it about culture? How to make equalitarian projects fail? Disarmament: is there a plan “B”? Fiction: North Korean food aid to South Korea. From Mugabeland to Somalia. Where good news are obligatory. Whose business is Flanders?
 
1. By the choice of the Islamists, a conflict is upon us. No one here had wanted it. This is consoling but also irrelevant. Some prefer to view the confrontation as being between religions. On the surface, this is true. Religion might be, as it is in this case, merely an expression of culture. After all, the implication of what a religious duty amounts to is a matter of interpretation. This does not reduce the weight of the issues but it does change their context from “religion” to “culture” and “tradition”.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia, and the Custodian of Postmodern European Secularism, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, on July 16 opened the World Conference on Dialogue in Madrid.
 
The aim of the event is to promote dialogue between the world’s main religions, and, as some observers suspect, to establish a one-world religion based on Islam. More than 200 leaders of different religions [pdf], including Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Universalism, Marxism and Multiculturalism, are attending the three-day conference. Also attending are leading personalities specialized in dialogue and useful topics such as “life of human societies, international cooperation, human rights, security and peace and living peacefully together.”

In my previous post I mentioned that 297 cars had burned during the night of July 13-14. Now it seems that another 295 were torched the following night, making a total of 592 cars destroyed – 150 in Ile-de-France (the Parisian region) and 145 in the provinces. In addition, 98 persons were arrested and 58 were placed in custody in all of France. The figures just for Ile-de-France are 48 arrests and 29 in custody.

However the worst crime so far took place in Asnières, in the department of Hauts-de-Seine (Parisian suburbs). TF1 reports:

Spain on July 15 became the 23rd EU member state to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. The plenary vote in the Senate was 223 in favor of the treaty, six against and two abstentions. King Juan Carlos I is expected to sign the treaty later this week to complete the ratification process.
 
Spain’s lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying the treaty on June 26, with 322 deputies in the 350-member chamber coming out in favor.

The Bastille Day festivities apparently went off very well, thanks to beautiful weather, the presence of Ingrid Betancourt who received the Legion of Honor, flawless performances by the parachutists, and reassurances from both the Joint Chief of Staff and the government that the rift between Sarkozy and his military had been mended. Here are some of the events and comments that I found of interest:

First, some unpleasant news: 297 cars were torched during the night of July 13-14. This is standard now in France on holidays, and is only news to the hapless owners of those vehicles, possibly not even to them.

Belgium ratified the EU’s Lisbon Treaty last week when, after much pressure, the Flemish regional parliaments OK-ed the treaty with only the Flemish Secessionist Vlaams Belang voting against the EU treaty. A Belgian government is now no longer needed and Belgium can return to its limbo situation of non-government.

The Belgian government of Prime Minister Yves Leterme has fallen. Belgium has been in a political crisis since the elections of June 10, 2007, when the parties in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of the country, voted for more autonomy, while the parties in Wallonia, the French-speaking southern half, voted for a status-quo. For six months, the Belgian politicians were unable to put a government together. Last December, King Albert II called back Guy Verhofstadt, the previous Prime Minister, who had lost the elections, to form an “interim government.” On March 18, Mr Leterme, a Flemish Christian-Democrat, formed a government without a government agreement between Flemings and Walloons on a common future for Belgium. The deadline of July 15 was set to reach this agreement. Yesterday evening the situation was still deadlocked and Mr Leterme offered his resignation to the King.

German Spectator is a new column published by the Brussels Journal. It aims to provide a regular survey of German mainstream media coverage of politics, religion and society, as well as of foreign policy, especially toward Europe and the United States. This week’s Spectator looks at some of the stories making German headlines during the last seven days and finds America, in one way or another, dominating the thoughts of Germany’s media elites.