Fidias, Von der Leyen, Musk, Philistines
The EU has advantages on one side, question marks on the other. In July, The Irish Times columnist Jack Power writing about Ursula Von der Leyen’s reelection chances said ‘bizarrely’, Fidias, the Cyprus MEP, opposed her ‘… based on the results of a poll he ran on (X) social media.’
One of Fidias’ ambitions was to hug Elon Musk. After the bro-love chat between Musk and felon Donald Trump, both arrogant elitists, some may want to rethink giving him a vote, serious or otherwise, ever again.
Fidias succeeded not as an astute political operator but because people felt Cyprus was in need of a fresh, neutral face. He wanted his trusted sister to work for him, he had that in common with an Irish man (his name escapes me) who ran in MEP elections while nurturing ambitions to stand in upcoming Irish general elections. It was no secret that if he gained an MEP seat he would pass it to his sister if later elected to the Irish parliament. Apparently, he could do that.
Bizarre as Fidias using X to gauge the VdL vote was, arguably it came from the voice of the people he represents, not EU lobbyists. EU lobbying has been proven open to corruption. VdL has to be respected, as Angela Merkel was, for holding her own in a man’s world.
However, that some men at the top still see women as inferior, no matter their titles, was shown very publicly during a meeting in 2021 to discuss topics, among which was the treatment of women, Padraig O’ Moran, a veteran Irish columnist, noticed. In the same meeting as VdL were president Erdogan of Turkey and president of the European Council Charles Michel. Two chairs were next to each other which the two men of manners immediately commandeered, leaving the lady standing ‘… to find her way to a sofa that distanced her from the real action.’ Distanced soft sofa for a woman, front and centre chairs for the men, what a statement of equality!
Her German upbringing and diplomacy perhaps prevented her from saying something sarcastic or ironic to the two seat grabbers. Would Merkel have sat silently seething or would she have remained standing, staring at the men whose egos superseded grace until one was embarrassed enough to give up a seat he felt gave him superiority.
The appearance of being a civilized person in politics can often go just as deep as the finely tailored clothes the elected wear. Fidias looked snazzy in a suit but comments on his poor choice of words about the ‘missing’ killed that shot.
Manners make the man or woman not brands, and expensive labels on Western leaders’ apparel offers no proof that those wearing them are morally worthy of their pay packets in months past. Prominent Western leaders, empathy-vacuum-detached as elitist Romans at Games in the Colosseum, watched while thousands of Palestinians were murdered, as though condoning Ben Hur Netenyahu’s illegality, in thrall to the unstated belief that the Land of Milk and Honey belongs only to the Israelites. Their immorality is knowing why he continues the fight, and why his ceasefire conditions are obstacles to peace.
In The Coming of Civilization Ron Carter writes when Joshua (Moses’ successor) led the Hebrews into Canaan, they were forced to settle in the hills because enemies, notably the Philistines, occupied the more fertile coastal plain. That was 1200 BC.
How recently did many foreign settlers enter Israel demanding the right to ancestral lands? How many speak with accents of countries far removed from the generations of today’s indigenous Philistines, committing unlawful acts against a people ranking in Biblical times with the Israelites, whose name came to use in English as an insult.
In 1974, we were told the invading Turkish army wanted to drive Greeks into the sea. Look hard at exhausted, driven Palestinians, see what could have been if a ceasefire hadn’t been imposed. Israel has no more right to determine the lives or hold lands of Palestinians than Hitler had to determine the lives and property of Jews.