Posted on 10/15/2004 8:44:41 AM PDT by knighthawk
An Israeli government report says the Middle-East conflict has put the country on a collision course with the European Union. Although the EU has, until now, played no more than a minor role in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the influential document from the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem warns that, as Brussels gains power, the EU will seek to isolate Israel.
Zalman Shoval is a former Israeli ambassador to the US, and a foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In this interview with Radio Netherlands, he gives his opinion on the report.
"This is one view, there could of course be other views. I'm not discounting that view; Israel should always be on guard for any possible development. But there could be other scenarios with the newer members of the EU being less involved in business and economic interests with the Arab countries than France for instance or less supportive of the Arab autocratic regimes […] this could actually create a better relationship with the EU: one should not take anything for granted. Either the bad scenario or the good scenario."
RN: "You've just hit the nail on the head in terms of the ‘if' in this report. The ‘if' is that the EU has to set aside internal differences in order to cut into Washington's clout in the Middle East. Do you think that's a likelihood?"
"Look, I don't want to sound cynical, but if you look at the European record since World War I, not World War II, there's been very little constructive or positive that Europe - although there was no European Union at the time - has done in the Middle East. One would say that the only constructive role, which some Europeans don't always like, was that of the United States."
"But one must look beyond that; it's not a question of the United States. If one looks at the present relationship between Israel and the EU, which on the one hand, on the economic level, is excellent - it's so good sometimes the Americans are even troubled by it. Israel is one of the biggest customers the EU has actually in this part of the world, larger than most Arab countries, and also vice versa."
"But if one looks at that relationship, which in political terms is certainly very far from being perfect, unfortunately, one must ask oneself why is there already a measure of isolation, not just in the future […] I think the reasons are the economic interests of some of the European countries in the Arab world, but no less is the growing trend of anti-Semitism in Europe today, not only on the extreme right, but also sometimes on the left, and we are very often made to blame for what's happening and this again increases the trend towards isolation."
RN: "Do you think that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shares the concerns of the foreign ministry about isolation at the hands of Brussels?
"I don't really know whether he shares the concern, but I think all Israelis are concerned by the present tendencies in part of the political world in Europe. Some concerns which we have [are] that it is convenient - and the Jewish people know something about that from its history - to make us responsible for things which really have nothing to do with us at all. We will have to fight with that, but I must say quite frankly that we have good reason to rely much more on the leader of the free world, America, than on some of these political machinations in Europe."
Ping
Barf alert!
European MP condemn Israel's cruelty
Member of the European Parliament Yorgis Tossas, from Greece, on Wednesday condemned the Israeli practices against the Palestinian people.
In a statement to the press, Tossas criticized the U.S. support to Israel, as well as the verbal objection of the EU against Israeli massacres and crimes in the occupied lands that put the criminal and the victim on the same level.
He also denounced the EU's continued economic support to Israel through cooperation agreements signed between them, calling for adopting political and economic measures regarding Israel and halting the EU-Israeli Association agreement.
He called for pressuring Israel to stop its brutal practices against the Palestinians and to dismantle the racial separation wall.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/041015/2004101517.html
Prime Minister Golda Meir, an old socialist, was one of the first Israelis to understand that left-wing support was capricious at best. Howard M. Sachar tells the story in Israel and Europe: An Appraisal in History (1999). During the Yom Kippur war of 1973, when Israel was fighting off a surprise attack by Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, European nations not only refused to help, they closed their airports to American planes resupplying Israel. Golda Meir felt betrayed. After the war she told Willy Brandt, the socialist chancellor of Germany: "I need to know what possible meaning socialism can have when not a single Socialist country in all of Europe was prepared to come to the aid of the only democratic nation in the Middle East."
At a Socialist International meeting in January, 1974, she asked her "old comrades, long-standing friends" where they were when she needed them. "We are only a tiny Jewish state and there are over 20 Arab states with vast territories, endless oil and billions of dollars, but what I want to know is whether these things are decisive factors in Socialist thinking?"
No one gave her an answer.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/835247/posts
The EU collective is on a collision course with God...And oh boy what a collision it will be! The EU is an attempt to build the Tower of Babel all over again. Their choice of the Tower of Babel as their official symbol on posters and other printed materials, is all but daring God to destroy them...which He will.
is all but daring G-d to destroy them...which He will.
> here's hoping it's sooner rather than later!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.