Monday’s report in the NY Times on the widespread and worsening divide between French-speaking Walloons and Flemish (Belgian-Dutch) speakers, which threatens to split Belgium apart politically, brings me back to Prof. Tony Judt’s naive pronouncements on the supposed eclipse of ethnic-based nationalism. He’s used the post-nationalist example of the European Union as a club to beat upon the head of the State of Israel, which he’s loudly declared “an anachronism” as an “ethno-religious” state.
Soon Brussels, the seat of the European Union, may itself cease to be the capital of a unified Belgium. Why? Because of this supposedly anachronistic phenomenon of ethnic nationalism.
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