Root cause? Hardly. Currently no settlements, let alone settlement expansion, in Gaza and that is where the bulk of rockets are launched... the west bank? Not so much.
Peace prospects in the longer term????? How many times since 1948 have “diplomats” tried to bring peace? And any “so-called” temporary peace was always at the expense of Israel?
European governments seem to be realizing that Israel would make a much better ally for themselves than the U.S.
Our president failed to stand up with NATO to support the Europeans when Vladimir Putin annexed the Crimea and threatened Ukraine with Russian tanks. Obama has refused to send military aid to Kiev; in fact, Obama hasn’t even sent tens of million of dollars in humanitarian aid to the poor, hungry and homeless Ukrainians, as he’s now doing for the people of Gaza.
To reasonable people like Europe’s current leaders, the events going on in Israel not only demonstrate that Israel was not the aggressor in the current war — it was Hamas who rained down thousands of rockets on Israeli cities before the IDF entered Gaza to protect itself — but also that Israel has developed a miraculous defensive weapon, the Iron Dome, which every world leader who cares about the safety of his or her people should want to have.
And by allying themselves with Israel, European governments can gain access to Israel’s advanced technology.
And what does the U.S. under Obama have to offer? Besides U.S.-perpetrated NSA surveillance on a level not seen in Europe since the Staasi was operating in East Germany?
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the leader of Europe, has been politely making her views on Obama known — that he’s a creepy little man obsessed with spying on her private phone calls and those of other world leaders, and that she’d just as soon have as little to do with him and the U.S. diplomats in Germany, now that she’s thrown out a CIA agent found spying on her country.