Good News: The EU Is Willing To Play A Role

The EU has a document outlining plans for renewed efforts to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace in 2009:

Titled "The EU Action Strategy for Peace in the Middle East: The Way Forward," the document proposes various steps the EU should take in 2009 on both the Palestinian and the Syrian tracks, with emphasis on the former. However, its proposals are liable to result in a clash with whatever new government Israelis elect in February, whether headed by Tzipi Livni or Benjamin Netanyahu.

The EU, it states, must encourage the newly elected American government to be actively engaged in Israeli-Palestinian talks.

In addition, the document states, the international community must closely monitor implementation of the first stage of the road map peace plan, which requires Israel to freeze settlement construction and remove West Bank roadblocks, and the PA to fight terror.

Regarding the so-called core issues of the conflict - borders, security, Jerusalem and refugees - the document proposes three main lines of action.

"A key part of building the Palestinian state involves resolving the status of Jerusalem, as the future capital of two states," it declares. Therefore, "the EU will work actively towards the re-opening of the Palestinian institutions, including the Orient House."

Orient House, which once served as the PA's de facto Foreign Ministry, was closed in August 2001 following the deadly terror attack on Jerusalem's Sbarro restaurant. Since then, successive Israeli governments have refused to reopen it, as it symbolized Palestinian claims to sovereignty in East Jerusalem.

On security, the document expresses EU willingness to play a role in Israeli-Palestinian security arrangements, mainly by sending policemen, soldiers or civilians to help train Palestinian security forces or to supervise implementation of a final-status agreement.

Regarding the refugees, the document says an "agreed, just, fair and realistic" solution must be found, adding that the EU would be willing to help establish and operate an international mechanism to compensate and rehabilitate Palestinian refugees.

The document praises the PA for having greatly improved security in the West Bank, and therefore concludes that Israel must transfer additional large swathes of this territory to Palestinian security control. "During the coming period, Palestinian security presence should be expanded beyond cities," it says.

In addition, it notes, the EU "expects a complete freeze of all settlement activities including natural growth, including in East Jerusalem ... The EU will continue to send clear messages to Israel and examine practical ways to exert more influence on these issues, including on goods from settlements."

Considering the incredible 'willingness' of the EU to insert itself into conflict, you would never guess that Israel is actually a sovereign nation.

And just how is the EU going to "work towards" all of these goals it has set up for itself? 

In the beginning of this year a bill was passed requiring Peace Now to reveal the extent of the contributions it has been receiving over the years from the EU--contributions that Peace Now may have been trying to hide through a financial scam. 

Over the years, the EU has been very busy pumping money into Peace Now:

In 2005, for instance, European Union countries funded Peace Now to the tune of 1.75 million shekels (some $400,000), and three times that amount in 2006. The biggest donors were Great Britain and Norway, which are opposed to the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria - thus that the money they give Peace Now essentially serves those governments' foreign policy interests. Given Peace Now's surveillance activities over Israeli communities and IDF military installations in Judea and Samaria, the organization is thus "in effect spying on Israel for foreign governments," Bedein reported.

The Knesset Interior Committee confirmed in 2004 that Peace Now had received 50,000 Euros from the government of Finland to conduct intelligence activities in Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, the Golan, Gaza and Jerusalem. The Israel Penal Code for Espionage defines “photography of sensitive areas of Israel for any foreign power” as an act of espionage, punishable by ten years imprisonment.

According to the article, the bill was actually watered down--originally, the bill was supposed to ban all foreign contributions to non-profit organizations. Now would be a good time to put that back into the bill, and close the door altogether on the EU interference into Israeli affairs.

Technorati Tag: Israel and EU.