Israel's EU upgradeEditorial in the Jerusalem Post, on-line version, June 18,
2008, Updated June 19, 2008
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and EU foreign ministers ushered in a new era in
Israeli-European relations this week at a meeting in Luxembourg. After a year of
intensive negotiations, led on the Israeli side by Yossi Gal, Rafi Barak and Ran
Curiel, the EU-Israel Association Council announced an upgrade in the relations
between Israel and the EU.
This entails increased diplomatic cooperation; Israel's participation in
European agencies and environmental, educational, agricultural, banking and
space programs; and an examination of possible Israeli integration into the
European single market.
The move encountered stiff resistance from the usual quarters. The Arab
League tried to torpedo it. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayad
sent a letter to the leaders of the EU countries urging them not to upgrade ties
unless Israel halts settlement expansion and construction of the security
barrier. Hamas rebuked the 27-nation bloc for its decision, which it said showed
that Europe was "still in the clutches of the US."
A coalition of humanitarian organizations, meanwhile, expressed their intense
disappointment that the EU failed to make the upgrade contingent on ending
Israel's "abuses" of Palestinian human rights. Adam Leach, regional manager for
Oxfam International, said: "As Israel's pre-eminent trade partner, the EU must
use the upcoming upgrade negotiations process to ensure Israel ends the
ever-worsening Gaza blockade, lifts movement restrictions and halts settlement
expansion... including East Jerusalem."
The International Solidarity Movement said, "In light of Israel's systematic
breach of European Union, international, and human rights obligations,
agreements and laws, the EU's possible upgrade of its relationship with Israel
can only be viewed as a reward to unlawful behavior."
THE EU'S move - and the deepening ties it heralds - is a welcome one for
several reasons.
First, at an auspicious time, it braces and reinforces a growing friendship.
Israel has started to enjoy stronger ties with France under Nicolas Sarkozy,
Britain under Gordon Brown, Germany under Angela Merkel, and Italy under Silvio
Berlusconi. And speaking in Berlin on Tuesday, Czech Republic Deputy Premier
Alexander Vondra said that his country intends to use its term as president of
the Council of the European Union to improve relations with Israel.
The announcement is welcome, too, in light of the fact that the EU remains
the financial backer of the PA and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
The EU's engagement with the region, after all, has not always been
judicious. It has a history of allocating millions of Euros to NGOs based in the
PA and Israel, some of which pursue partisan activities that have a less than
benign influence on the conflict.
As documented in a report recently published by NGO Monitor, the Israel
Committee Against House Demolitions, for instance, received in 2005 a two-year
grant of 473,000 euros though one of its senior staffers is reported to have
called for divestment from Israel. Adalah received 513,684 euros from the EU
coffers that year, though it cannot bring itself to embrace the legitimacy of
Israel as a Jewish state. On the bright side, the EU has not provided any
financial support to Peace Now for several years.
THE UPGRADE is also welcome for the economic fruits it promises to bring to
an already robust partnership. In 1995 the EU and Israel signed the
Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement (it took force in 2000), which provides
for reciprocal tariff-free exports in industrial goods, and reciprocal tariff
concessions in agricultural goods (with the exception of products originating in
"the Israeli settlements in the West-Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan
Heights"). In terms of total trade, which in 2006 amounted to more than 23.5
billion euros, the EU is Israel's major partner. The potential for further
trade, beneficial to both sides, is only beginning to be tapped.
But the upgrade of relations perhaps takes on its deepest significance in
light of the EU's role as a Quartet member, and the increased leverage with
which Israel can now encourage the Europeans to take a firm stand against Hamas
and Iran, while coaxing Palestinian relative moderates to temper their demands
so as to increase chances of a bargaining breakthrough. For all these reasons,
the EU announcement, and the far-reaching effects it betokens, represent a step
in the right direction.
