There’s no appeasing the E.U.

EU set to reassess ties if Israel doesn’t move on peace

Fed up with settlement expansion, officials in Brussels are working on punitive measures to be implemented as soon as the political leadership wants to do so

By Raphael Ahren, TOI

The European Union is inconspicuously but determinedly threatening to reevaluate bilateral ties with Israel if the Netanyahu government fails to make progress toward a two-state solution and continues its current policy of allowing construction beyond the pre-1967 lines.

The EU’s new policy has gone largely unnoticed due to this summer’s Operation Protective Edge, but EU officials are already busy at work on a set of sanctions against Israel that Brussels could enact whenever the union’s political echelon gives a green light. Indeed, some in the EU are currently considering implementing a mechanism that would immediately penalize Israel for every step deemed unhelpful to the peace process (such as settlement expansion), a senior European diplomat told The Times of Israel.

On July 22, in the middle of the 50-day war with Hamas, the 28 EU foreign ministers issued a joint statement that was widely seen as pro-Israel, as it condemned indiscriminate rocket fire against Israeli civilians and called for the disarmament of all terrorist organizations in Gaza. Even the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem praised the EU for the statement.

However, the text also severely criticized Israel, as the EU has in the past, for various policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians, including continued settlement expansion, “settler violence,” the “worsening of living conditions for Palestinians,” house demolitions, “evictions and forced transfers” and “increasing tensions” at the Temple Mount.

Critically, the joint statement went on to say that the future of bilateral ties is conditional on moves the EU deems helpful to achieve peace, marking the first time such a linkage was mentioned so explicitly.

“The EU underlines that the future development of the relations between the EU and both the Israeli and Palestinian partners will also depend on their engagement towards a lasting peace based on a two-state solution,” the joint statement stressed.

Last week, a spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton used a similar formulation in a press release condemning Israel’s decision to advance construction in Jerusalem’s Givat Hamatos neighborhood and to allow Jews to move into houses in Silwan. Both areas are located beyond the pre-1967 lines.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, during their meeting in Jerusalem, on June 20, 2013. (photo credit: Amos Ben Gershom/ GPO/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton in Jerusalem, June 20, 2013. (photo credit: Amos Ben Gershom/ GPO/Flash90)

“We stress that the future development of relations between the EU and Israel will depend on the latter’s engagement towards a lasting peace based on a two-state solution,” the recent statement read.

The juxtaposition of Israel’s ties with the EU and Jerusalem’s will to establish a Palestinian state sounded like a threat to some.

“Some analysts saw it as a sign of impending action,” noted Andrew Rettman of EUObserver.com, a journalistic website run by a Brussels-based nonprofit. The Qatar-based Gulf Times newspaper understood the EU’s statement to mean that Israel’s plans in East Jerusalem “pose a threat to … Israel’s relations with the European Union.”

For the time being, it should be stressed, the EU has no intention of cutting ties with Israel, nor does it intended to enact very harsh sanctions right away. However, there is little doubt that the union and its 28 member states are becoming increasingly fed up with issuing condemnations whenever Jerusalem announces new plans for construction in East Jerusalem or the West Bank, without being able to do anything about it.

Therefore, EU officials have started working on mechanisms to impose penalties on Israel, the senior European diplomat told The Times of Israel. The plan under consideration is to respond to every Israeli action deemed detrimental to the peace process by implementing a step that would hurt Israel, the diplomat elaborated.

How would this work? The EU has long insisted that existing EU legislation needs to be implemented, which in many cases is not yet the case. If Jerusalem were to approve another building project in East Jerusalem, for example, the union could opt to introduce a labeling regime for products from West Bank settlements.

Brussels argues that EU law requires such labeling, but the EU has hitherto refrained from implementing a labeling regime, partly so as not to disturb US-brokered peace negotiations with the Palestinians. But now that the talks have broken down, and Israel continues to build beyond the Green Line, there is very little that would hold the EU back from requiring such labels on all settlement goods imported to Europe, the diplomat indicated.

While concrete sanctions might not be announced at the meeting of the EU’s foreign ministers on October 20 in Luxembourg, the details of possible punitive measures (such as labeling) are currently being discussed in several working-level meetings in Brussels, the diplomat said. Once the bureaucratic work is completed, the union’s political leaders could implement such measures at a time of their choosing.

The EU is not only brandishing the stick; it is also offering carrots. Were Israelis and Palestinians to make peace, the EU has promised to grant both parties a “Special Privileged Partnership” — a significant upgrade in ties that would include financial, political and security assistance.

“The EU is slowly emerging as a political player in the world. It is increasingly linking its economic power to specific policies,” said Caspar Veldkamp, the Netherlands’ ambassador to Israel. “Regarding Israel, the EU offered the prospect of a special partnership, akin to Switzerland’s relations with the EU, in the event of a final status agreement. At the same time, if Israel continues to announce building decisions and so on, a tendency will grow in the EU to respond to such Israeli steps by implementing specific EU measures.”

Several of these measures were already decided upon by the EU’s foreign ministers in 2012, the ambassador said.

Ambassador for the Netherlands to Israel Caspar Veldkamp, June 10, Amsterdam. (photo credit: Bibi Neury, Photo Republic)
Ambassador Caspar Veldkamp (photo credit: Bibi Neury, Photo Republic)

Veldkamp diagnosed an “erosion of support for Israel in European countries” due to a lack of progress in the peace process. “I am fully aware that you need two parties to make progress. But Europeans expect more initiative from the Israeli side, since they see Israel as the stronger party of the two,” he said. “Moreover, Europeans are increasingly annoyed with Israel’s continuing decisions on building across the Green Line.”

Some smaller member states have already indicated their desire to sanction Israel if the peace process doesn’t advance to their liking.

Last month, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja warned Jerusalem that trade and other relations might suffer if the peace process doesn’t advance at a satisfactory pace. The EU has offered enough carrots, he told Haaretz, adding that “it also seems that it needs the possibility of sticks. If there is no progress, [Israel] has to be shown that there are costs involved in the stalling,” he said.

A few days later, the foreign minister of Denmark, Martin Lidegaard, similarly threatened “new steps, including a change in our trade relations with Israel,” in case the ceasefire negotiations with Hamas in Cairo didn’t go the way the Europeans expect. Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt later clarified that Lideggard’s statement reflected his private opinion and did not represent the government’s position. “I don’t think this will be discussed in the EU,” she said.

But if Jerusalem continues with its current policies towards Palestinians and settlements, it will be only a matter of time before the EU and its member states decide to reassess the future of bilateral relations with Israel, including the implementation of some type of sanctions.

October 8, 2014 | 202 Comments »

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50 Comments / 202 Comments

  5. honeybee Said:

    Oil ????????????

    Interesting, I never thought about that. Good!!!!!

    honeybee Said:

    Do you believe the Almighty worries about YOUR questions. ” A fool says in his heart,” there is no G-D” .

    I am a strong believer in HaShem! But not in the way modern religions portray him. Think Mind. The physical world was created in a nano second by a sudden powerful spec of energy light beams we are all made up of part of that original one time creation. The laws of nature grabbed hold and the universe began with time to grow and expand. E = mc 2!!!!

    From that single nano second burst of energy. “Light”

    We all of us are made of light Beams

    I don’t know that he cares at all but that’s why we have brains and intelligence to ask question and even questions that have no apparent answer. 500 years from now someone will ask questions to which there is no answer but those questions will be the answers to those questions asked previously 500 years ago Time is the required ingredient for understanding.

    Have you never been to the Grand Canyon ???????????

    Twice!!! Once by helicopter.

    The mot awesome sight in the world. How small and insignificant we are.

  8. @ yamit82:
    yamit82 Said:

    Why the Dinosaurs???

    Oil ????????????

    yamit82 Said:

    I believe in G-d but I do have questions:

    Do you believe the Almighty worries about YOUR questions. ” A fool says in his heart,” there is no G-D” .”
    yamit82 Said:

    Could Noah’s ark really have happened

    Have you never been to the Grand Canyon ???????????

  9. honeybee Said:

    No I mean ordering, commanding and luring not necessarily in this order, Boy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I always liked the luring part compensated for th other stuff.

    We guys are so shallow. 😉

  12. yamit82 Said:

    Hmm you mean screaming, nagging and crying, not necessarily in that order???

    No I mean ordering, commanding and luring not necessarily in this order, Boy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  13. honeybee Said:

    Its was necessary for women to communicate in order to complete their household task and deal with children. Cooperation was a necessity.

    Women sweptout their caves kept the fires going took care of the kids and the men went off to have some fun. Huntin, fishin, fightin, watching football etc.

    Nothing has changed much today in principle.

  17. yamit82 Said:

    your basic caveman grunting.

    Women, not Men, developed language. Its was necessary for women to communicate in order to complete their household task and deal with children. Cooperation was a necessity.

  20. @ yamit82:
    Appeals but I am not at all qualified to dive into that field of expertise. Yet, we could somehow make it a follow up or addendum by you.
    We should meet but I am very busy right now with a Graduation Board Meeting to review 20 Finals at Colleges up North and with home “shiputzim”. I say a month from now… What do you say?

  22. @ SHmuel HaLevi 2:

    An addendum to your work and thesis is I think Endenics.

    “”I will restore to the peoples a pure language, that they may call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent.” – Zephaniah 3:9

    If the link between the ear and the sense of balance is a relatively recent medical discovery, why is it that the ancient Hebrew language has the same linguistic root for both words? Science fiction, or science fact? Is Hebrew the first human language?

    Only Hebrew language dynamics with its built-in synonym and antonym system explains why LeaF and FoLio (LF=FL) mean the same, or why a person who knows Hebrew well can fully understand English, Basque or Swahili.

    The majesty of Hebrew is only faintly visible in its offspring. Yet, some continue to maintain that most words are random, meaningless symbols which evolved from your basic caveman grunting.

    Hebrew, with its right brain/left brain neurological keyboard demonstrates that Greek and Latin are merely grandparents, while Hebrew is the common ancestor, the original computing language of our biological random access memory, which was scrambled during the output stage by the Master Prog rammer (Tower of Babel story in Genesis).

    Don’t worry if you have never heard a word in Hebrew or read anything on language, you will soon find out that you have never heard a word that wasn’t Hebrew.”
    Read More:

  23. @ yamit82:
    I will send you a few excerpts, the whole book is still in the publishers desk, editing, formatting, etc.
    And back to your questions, Torah is an exacting document and I fully believe that the Flood and the Ark were both real. Early models of carriers of our dental configuration including “Y” five cuspid molars, to be exact, Homo Erectus, populated virtually every corner of the world then known. Dubois found Homo Erectus fossils in Java and Davidson Black followed by Franz Weidenreich found H.E. also in the Chokoutuien Cave in China while Clark Howell found his traces in the Ambrona Valley open air sites in Spain. The Homo Erectus fellow crossed Sea expanses to settle in Java, adapted to the bitter cold in China and went about business in Spain.
    400000 years back he used fire, hunted in teams and built sea going rafts and learnt to navigate.
    A mere 4000 years back G.d and Noah knew how to build the Ark. 🙂
    I believe.

  25. @ yamit82:
    As I have expected you present a series of deep thought questions Yamit.
    Up to and including part of the 18th Century the sole authorities representing the school of purely traditional religious based thinking adhered to the theory of “catastrophism”. It was the Archbishop Ussher who calculated!!! the age of the Earth, Creation on 4004 BC. Another Priest calculated the day and even the hour… That was preceded according to that school by a series of “creations” and subsequent catastrophes.
    By 1833 Charles Lyell dealt catastrophism its final blow. Lyell, based on large amounts of physical evidence posited, theorized that the Earth was immensely older than 6000 years. Nature has been forming the Earth mantle in an uniform fashion for a very long time. “Uniformitarianism”. Wind, flowing water, Earthquakes, volcanoes, tectonic faults, etc acted upon the Earth in an continued and uniform fashion. Lyell’s great work is mandatory text to this day, is a central text for those interested on Creation and everyone else. John Frere, Georges Cuvier, Johaness Friedrich Esper, De Perthes were also deeply into searching for the truth.
    Some 7 years ago I wrote a book largely connected to the subject leaning on genetics as well. It is titled “CREVOLUTION.
    Not yet published…

    We could talk for many days on this fascinating subject.

  27. @ dweller:
    @ SHmuel HaLevi 2:

    Could Noah’s ark really have happened?

    Like very large devastating Earthquakes the Earth and all life forms have been effected by natural occurrences like Large and small meteors and comets hitting the earth’s surface.

    I believe in G-d but I do have questions:

    Did the Laws of nature not nature but the laws that govern nature. Precede creation? Jews believe it was the torah.

    Why the Dinosaurs??? Where they G-d’s mistake? An ontological experiment gone bonkers? Does this refute attributes many of us ascribe to G-d?

    What do the pre Abrahanic biblical narratives in the Torah. have to do with Judaism???

    Yet they are all in the Torah so they must have value after all the Torah means teachings> What’s the lessons to be learned?

    Your friend views our Jewish scripture through the prism of the NT. Don’t see how he can ever get it right that way even with his little nuanced tweaks,

  28. @ dweller:
    The engineer spoke and there is much more to add if you wish. The FLOOD was all powerful against all LIVING entities. Full stop.

  29. @ SHmuel HaLevi 2:
    If all those “data” are FACTS, then the Flood we’re talking about wasn’t all that powerful.

    Yet that possibility seems LESS likely to me than that all those data are, in fact, ‘facts.’

  30. @ dweller:
    Here is the engineer hat data.
    The Flood against all Living entities took place by the most accurate estimates some 4280 years ago. Noah was some 600 plus years old and his oldest 100 years old.
    The oldest Egyptian Dynasty supported by still available physical records was that of Hor-Aha, 5080 years old.
    Yericho is over 10000 years old and its very much complete ruins including burial areas is ready for visits.
    South and North American Aborigines burial grounds remain intact and those go back some 10000 years.
    The Swartkrans, South Africa, Australopithecus skeletons readily available, date back 2 million years.
    Olduvai Valley Lucy’s 🙂 is said to be also 2 million years young.
    And, and here, nearby to my home, in the Carmel Mountain range, there are two not one intact cemeteries dating back bout 80000 years.
    About a block from my home there are six pre Canaanite burial chambers dug into hillside boulders. It is protected historical site.
    The FLOOD as I understand it was G.d decree against all living. Be well.

  31. @ SHmuel HaLevi 2:

    “I am one of many that believe that Noah identified to Abraham the location of burial sites of the family.”

    With all due respect to the many, you are also, however, as I recall, an engineer. . . .

    If my assessment of the forces released during the Flood is even slightly correct, it would’ve been impossible AFTER the event to identify any situs or location from BEFORE it.

    The existing land masses themselves would’ve been significantly altered beyond all prior recognition — and new ones, created. There could’ve been no going back to what had been before.

    Speculation on my part, I grant you, but hard to escape the conclusion (from out here in the bleacher seats anyway).

  32. @ SHmuel HaLevi 2:

    “The flood was a decree against all LIVING beings. Except those in the ARK.”

    Well, yes. (Not much that Adonai Elohim could do BY WAY OF PUNISHMENT to anybody who was already dead.)

    My point, however, was that under the enormously destructive activity of the Flood, no buried body would have remained intact (let alone, remained buried where it was buried). No garden variety tsunami, this.

    Gen 7 says that “all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened…” [v. 11] The atmospheric canopy containing much of the planet’s moisture collapsed, adding a whole lot more water to the mix, at least until the event was over.

    “And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered.” [v. 19]

    The violence of the event — the quantum of energy released — is hard to even conceive, but it’s got to have been H U M O N G O U S.

    Bodies — living OR dead — would’ve been, quite literally, ripped apart. Think about it.

  33. @ dweller:
    Sorry, I forgot to mention the following.
    Abraham Avinu studied with Noah himself for, I believe 14 years. I am one of many that believe that Noah identified to Abraham the location of burial sites of the family. Abraham did not select Meharat Hamachpelah at random. Again, If I recall correctly Adam died a mere seventy years before Noah was born. Noah’s father was contemporary to Adam…

  34. @ dweller:
    The flood was a decree against all LIVING beings. Except those in the ARK. Correct me if I am wrong.
    Anyway. At the left hand side corner of an open patio there is a section that by tacit agreement NO ONE trod upon.
    By the way, in the Muslim area but also facing our Cave there is a burial site including the head of a person I prefer not to name in the same email generally addressing Adam and Eve.

  43. @ dove:

    Love the song, I remember sitting in a Japanese café, San Francisco, CA, eating tempura and listening to it. Sun on the bay.

  46. SHmuel HaLevi 2 Said:

    Levi, son of Mother Leah.

    TX is named after the third son of Leah and a brand of men’s jeans. He is a rascal like his name sake. I often quote Jacob saying,” how can I face my neighbors the way you behave”.

  47. @ honeybee:
    No, I am not related to Yehuda HaLevi and yes, he was a great poet.
    I am related to Yehuda Barcan though, one of most beloved screen actors in Israel. 🙂
    He was a true rascal when young and turned the corner into becoming a Rav now. My kids tell me that I look exactly like him. I never told them that I was as much of a rascal as he was… :)))
    The Barcans or Barkans are Kohanites, Priestly branch of the Levi Tribe. I fly the reported Levi tribe standard in front of me. Both the Kohanim and Levites come from the same Tribe. Levi, son of Mother Leah.
    Mother Leah is buried in Hebron, the Machpelah Cave that was bought by Abraham Avinu from Ephron for 400 silver Shekels. There are clear signals that both Adam and Eve are there as well.
    We visit the Family as much as we can and spend a long time at the Chamber, (Ohel), of Mother Leah and her husband. It is a little Chapel, some three meters by three meters located across a patio from the Ohel including Father Abraham and Mother Sarah.
    Some day I will relate incredibly close connections with that terrific human being while a visited them. Our firstborn, daughter name is Leah…

  49. I extend the Priestly blessings to all of you and in particular to Ted.
    As Levites myself and my sons would love nothing more than to be called again to serve in the Temple.
    G.d Bless you all