29/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - "We must warn America against a major historic mistake. At the same time, our duty is to warn the State of Israel that its long-term existence is threatened, and with it the rich spiritual history of Judaism… If we keep quiet, it would be for me, as friend of the United States and as son of a father of Jewish origin …, pure betrayal". This is what Max Kohnstamm, who was a close collaborator of Jean Monnet and who today lends all his European experience to the think-tank The European Policy Centre wrote in the pages of Suddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday. During the German occupation of the Netherlands, the Dutchman Kohnstamm was imprisoned in a concentration camp for three months. We were treated as "sub-humans", he remembers, adding: "what is happening today with the Palestinians reminds me of that experience, and we risk doing the same thing with the whole of the Muslim world". The "real priority" is peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and that "would also weaken the position of Saddam in the Muslim world", says Kohnstamm, adding: thanks to his words on "the old Europe", Donald Rumsfeld would be my candidate for the Prix Charlemagne , as he strengthens unity between French and Germans. On a more serious note, Kohnstamm considers that "the permanent crisis in the Middle East demands a major European response", and suggests in particular "a kind of Marshall Plan for the Middle East", whereas war in Iraq "would make the world an even more dangerous place than it is today".