The sooner they do it the better. In response Israel should proceed to make the TSS unviable by building in Jerusalem and E1 at a minimum. Israel should make it crystal clear that she will not accept a TSS based on the ’67 lines plus swaps and the division of Jerusalem. T. Belman
A settler looking at Ma’aleh Adumim from the E1 area. The EU sees any further settlement building in E1 as a red line. Photo by AP
The European Union has distributed a confidential document to its 28 member states that contains the draft of a proposal for sanctions to be imposed on Israel if it takes action in the West Bank that could make the two-state solution impossible, European diplomatic sources and senior Israeli officials said.
The representatives, who received the document from the EU’s European External Action Service (EEAS), were asked to keep its distribution limited and not to show it to Israel yet. Israeli diplomats in a number of European capitals reported the existence of the document to the Foreign Ministry, adding a few details about its content. However, they were unable to obtain the full document.
Three European diplomats and two senior Israeli officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the document deals mainly with “sticks and carrots” for Israel with regard to maintaining the two-state solution, although they said the document contained mainly sticks.
“The peace process is in deep freeze, but the situation on the ground is not. There is big frustration in Europe and zero tolerance for settlement activity. This paper is part of the internal brainstorming being done in Brussels these days, about what can be done to keep the two-state solution alive,” a European diplomat familiar with the details of the discussion around the document said.
According to current EU policy, any upgrading or development of ties to Israel is conditioned on actions it might carry out to advance the peace process and the two-state solution. The principle in the new document is that the EU will respond with sanctions and restrict its ties with Israel in response to actions that could make the two-state solution impossible.
European diplomats familiar with the document say it discusses Israeli actions that would constitute a red line for the EU. For example, it mentions advancement of construction in the E1 area between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem; construction of the Givat Hamatos neighborhood and additional construction in Har Homa south of Jerusalem, both of which are over the Green Line in Jerusalem. The EU believes that such construction puts at risk territorial contiguity of the Palestinian state and might make it impossible for Jerusalem to be the capital of both states.
Sanctions mentioned by the document include marking products manufactured in the settlements in EU supermarkets; limiting cooperation with Israel in various areas; and even restrictions on the free-trade agreement with Israel.
The document is in the initial stages of discussion. So far, it been discussed in two meetings of the Mashreq/Maghreb Working Party (or MaMa), which consists of diplomats from all EU countries who are specialists in the Middle East. “This paper is an uncooked dish and the process is only beginning, but it is slowly continuing,” a senior European diplomat told Haaretz.
The EU’s embassy in Israel declined to respond to Haaretz’s queries on the subject.
The document itself, and the great secrecy surrounding it, have led to concerns in Jerusalem. EU diplomats and senior Israeli officials noted that the framer of the document is Christian Berger, the director for Middle East of the EEAS. The Austrian was also behind EU sanctions against settlements in July 2013.
Senior Foreign Ministry officials said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman raised the issue of the document in his talks with the EU’s new high representative for foreign affairs, Federica Mogherini, two weeks ago in Jerusalem. Lieberman asked Mogherini to make sure that any action taken by Berger – who was appointed by Mogherini’s predecessor, Catherine Ashton – conformed to her policies and directives.
Last month, Haaretz revealed that another internal EU document included directives to the EU ambassador in Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, to convey a message to the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Bureau in Jerusalem, in the name of the 28 EU countries. The message included a proposal to launch talks between the EU and Israel, with the goal of reaching understandings that Israel would refrain from crossing EU red lines concerning the West Bank that would endanger the two-state solution.
Jerusalem was concerned at the time that these talks were preparations for sanctions – a kind of hearing before punishment is delivered. Senior Foreign Ministry officials said over the weekend that the secret document containing the “sticks and carrots” shows that their concerns were well founded.
“Even before we began the talks that the EU requested, they had already started planning for them to fail and to impose sanctions,” a senior Foreign Ministry official said.Secret EU document outlines sanctions against Israel if it thwarts two-state solution
The EU and the US obsessively stuck with the believe that Israel must disappear.
@ bernard ross:
Not PR all Israel has to do is to announce publicly support for Basque independence and let NGO’s take over. The blow-back from such an announcement would give both official Israelis and NGO’s a chance to lay Israel’s real position on the line…. Basques??? Who really cares, they hate us in any event.
bernard ross Said:
Since when have Jews agreed about anything?
Take many if not most nonobservant Jews who are nationalistic in sentiments, they are closer to the anti religious than to the religious. Take Zionist observant Jews who may share similar nationalist sentiments with the secular nationalists but will not join and are distrustful of them about everything else and would certainly not join with them where they do not have a leadership role.
The ultras while pro Land of Israel from a biblical POV, especially the youth, will do nothing to ensure Jewish control over any part of the Land of Israel and look down upon Zionist religious Jews even more than they do secular Jews and have been ordered to stay away from going up to the Temple mount. They await their Messiah and are only concerned with daily survival and petty arcane personal mitzvot.
The Gulf between any of these disparate groups is wider than any that unites them.
bernard ross Said:
No contradiction as the right through each of these groups ( thought to be on the right) are so disparate and divided on some core issues that they allow minority on the left to maintain power even when they lose national elections.
Cure will have to be imposed from without forcing unity. Our leadership in every generation here made every mistake possible and still our country grows and thrives.
Back in 1948, when we did not have anything resembling the outstanding army we have today, we fought against impossible odds and won. And today, when we have the most sophisticated army in the world, we choose not to fight. We choose not to recognize our enemies who live in our midst, and we choose not to recognize the war they are waging against us.
BB wants to get tough with rock throwers by fining their parents???? That is not getting tough. That is just plain stupid. I have been at the other end of the rock and it is not a “demonstration”. It is an act of war, an attempt to murder.
Our government is still struggling to define Israel as the Jewish State!!! It doesn’t want to discriminate against the Arabs (who just happen to be our enemies) for fear of being called racist!
And when Arabs riot on our holy Temple Mount, rather than throw them off the mountain and take it back, we bow to the King of the make believe kingdom of Jordan and promise not to let Jews pray there! As always, it will be our enemies who force us to do that which our leaders lack the courage to do on their own. Peace will never result from our backing down on Jewish principles.
Such a stance only invites terror. It is only by standing upon Jewish principles that peace will ensue. And if we consistently fail to stand upon Jewish principles then providence will cause our enemies to force us to do so, even against our own will.
Despite all of his heroic efforts to strike a peace deal with our enemies, BB cannot understand why our enemies do not cooperate. The reason for this is simple. One who is willing to negotiate his self respect will never understand someone who will not do so. Abu Mazen does not seek peace with Israel. He seeks to take Israel away from the Jewish People. This is a principle from which he will never back down. BB and his ilk seek to back down on Jewish principles and share our Divine inheritance with those who seek to take it from us. By so doing all we accomplish is to encourage our enemies. The only path to peace is Jewish pride and self respect.
yamit82 Said:
I agree, but this would be a function of PR,etc. and Israel has ignored this area of war along with educating jews and Lawfare. Making individual attempts at informing folks is not effective, it needs an organized funded effort as serious as cyber warfare. After all, every day we are faced with the deleterious effects of lies and libel on the state of israel but Israel has no organized effort to counter these. If this were not important then why does Israel daily have to deal with its damaging effects and organize its policies of security around those damaging effects?
yamit82 Said:
the key to the problem, a lack of agreement. the main sector I would have expected to be supportive of controlling the Mount and settling in the Jewish homeland is startlingly absent or even obstructive in those regards. If the religious sector supported jewish control of the Mount and YS and mustered a portion of the 750k that attended Rl Yosef funeral we would probably have seen YS settled by now.
yamit82 Said:
In a way , you contradict yourself. The problem is that a minority controls because the majority cannot unite over issues and therefore remain fragmented and supportive of the main principles which I consider to be jewish settlement and jewish control of the Jewish homeland. For this I blame the religious sector because if anyone should support jewish settlement in the Jewish homeland it should be them. It is strange to seek to declare a Jewish state when the supposedly “most Jewish” sector is unsupportive and even obstructive of that state. Should their leadership be followed in the jewish state?
@ bernard ross:
The Israeli left is definable the Israeli right is not mostly because there is no Israeli right by any organized and agreed definition and consensus.
Mostly the Israeli right is defined according to their views opposing the mostly defined left.
Principles precede movements and till there is agreement and consensus around same principles the so called Israeli right is all over the unstructured leaderless board.
Those in power in Israel will never willingly concede their positions of power and dominance. It must be taken!! Till now none have succeeded.
@ bernard ross:
The Israeli left is definable the Israeli right is not mostly because there is no Israeli right by any organized and agreed definition and consensus.
Mostly the Israeli right is defined according to their views opposing the mostly defined left.
Principles precede movements and till there is agreement and consensus around same principles the so called Israeli right is all over the unstructured leaderless board. This more than anything allows the minority to rule the majority in Israel and has always been mostly true here.
Those in power and control will never willingly concede their power it must be taken and for that one needs what the Israeli right is not , Yet!!!
@ SHmuel HaLevi 2:
Spain to vote November 18 😉 on Palestinian state recognition
Israel should come out strongly in favor of Basque independence and Catalan independence.
They both have more justification than the non Plais people.
Basques have an ancient language a common history and a defined geographical and historical borders, a common culture.
Israel should compare each attribute of the Basques as opposed to lack of same in the Palis.
@ yamit82
🙂 Todah!
In the Basque regions of Spain… they say…
Salud, munieira a pesetas, e muta lete a las tetas.
Health, much parnasah and a lots of milk in the udders.
Missing is the true good wish but they are just Basques.
Lechaim
No problem. The Euros can rest assured that Israel will take no action that would make a two state solution impossible east of the River:
—one for the Palis and one for the Bedouin.
All they have to do is talk it over with Abdullah.
@ SHmuel HaLevi 2:
Que HaShem dar toda la Humanidad Una EXCEPCIONAL
Semana llena de paz y la seguridad y la felicidad y Parnassah (dinero!) – Y shidduchim (la búsqueda de su alma gemela)
Para los que buscan y SALUD !!!!!
Si, si es Su Voluntad.
Want Israel to withdraw to its “1948 borders”? Who says 1948 borders are the proper ones? You do not go far enough!
Let Israel withdraw to its 970 BCE borders!
@ bernard ross:
The ratio remains almost constant since Mr. Begin’s times. The young population is moving away from the Peresite fabrications though.
We know that Livni is likely to have a hard time to be in the Knesset. The viper is trying every tool possible to sabotage in company with Lapid.
They may be poison but they are no match against Netanyahu.
I also reacted to Liberman’s reference to continued building in “Jewish Neighborhoods”. He should have said in Jerusalem.
SHmuel HaLevi 2 Said:
has the right, those for Jewish settlement and the Mount, increased or decreased in numbers. Have numbers been gained from the center and left or has the right simply moved members from right to further right?
Norwegian eurofilth at work….
calling Lt. Eisnor to give him his reward
@ bernard ross:
Lieberman is wiggling his way around but his real self has been exposed. He cannot be trusted. His ensemble will be reduced to 8 MK’s in the next elections. Likely even less than Deri.
I am gathering polls information.
Really? Is that something to boast about? What about E1 and YS? Liberman really playing it safe while trying to appear rebellious.
Europe is and always has been the most dangeours existential enemy of the jews. the best way to mitigate the euro threat is to facilitate other problems for them. Israel should clandestinely aid the muslim violence in europe, Israel should aid the vlad encroachment on europe, Israel should facilitate any policy which reduces euro energy sources and supplies. civil strife should be incited in europe. This can be done clandestinely while smiling in their face like they do to the Jews.
there is no reason why EU officials are allowed in YS, they have been meddling in internal Israeli affairs and their activity should be restricted in israel. Any sanction should be clearly seen to damage the interests of the pals. create a fund from pal customs to repay Jewish owned businesses. Reduce pal economy to below zero and create smuggling networks from med coast to europe for pals. Instead of paying pals to leave let them pay to leave on Israeli created smuggler networks. enlist crime networks in this effort like the US did in WWII
Since these EU people are not dealing with Israel’s best interests Israel should tell them they are misguided. Explaining to them a TSS solution is not viable because all the Palestinian factions are dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
Creating facts on the ground (As Ted says in E1) is most important for Israel. Israel will find other trade partners if some of the EU engages in boycotts. Sovereignty by building in Jerusalem and Judah and Samaria is needed. Some of the EU basically wants Israel to surrender to their Palestinian buddies.
Of course since a ball less wonder remain in power here and the MAPAM-MAPAI cabal controls the governing systems, the following is unlikely to happen unless the above mentioned cesspools are emptied.
This must be the Jewish action plan in response to any EU acts of intervention in our affairs.
Reduce their embassy levels to consular offices while we recall ambassadors for extended consultations.
Negate visas or any entry for nationals of the identified EU entities to Israel.
Inform the EU governments that their embassies, if ever allowed again, must be located in Jerusalem in places determined by our government.
Summarily expel selected islamic populations blocks and in their stead introduce trustworthy people as residents.
Remove Har HaBait allowances to muslims.
Execute all islamic rioters.
All foreign “NGO’s” activities must be terminated.
All EU and UN personnel shall be prevented entry to Eretz Israel…
More…