High Representative of the European Union gave a remarkably but unsurprisingly tone-deaf speech against the American “Peace to Prosperity” plan where he unwittingly explained how the EU has been contributing to endless conflict.
For too long we have been witnessing a conflict that has caused endless suffering for generations of Israelis and Palestinians alike. The increasingly dire situation on the ground – including violence, terrorism, incitement, settlement expansion, illegal by the way, and the consequences of the ongoing occupation – has destroyed hope on both sides and reduced the viability of a two-state solution.
At an international level, for a number of years, there has been little or no substantive engagement in efforts to resolve the conflict. Indeed, as one observer pointed out to me recently, there is neither peace nor a process.
In recent years, we on the European Union side, are perhaps the only actor to have stayed the course.
We have been vocal in our support for a negotiated two-state solution, based on the internationally agreed parameters and in accordance with international law. This means a two-state solution based on the parameters set in the Council Conclusions of July 2014 that meets Israeli and Palestinian security needs and Palestinian aspirations for statehood and sovereignty, ends the occupation that began in 1967, and resolves all permanent status issues in order to end the conflict.
Our European vision is a principled one and a pragmatic one. It reflects our broader attachment, as Europeans, to the rules-based international order.
In short, the EU is committed to a solution based on the Oslo process – a peace process decisively rejected by the PLO with a years-long terror spree.
The EU doesn’t mention that.
Even worse, Borrell thinks that unconditional support of the EU to Palestinian rejectionism is the best solution to the conflict, when it is the major factor that prolongs it:
We are also active on the ground. No other international actor has been as engaged as we have been in practical efforts to build a future Palestinian state. In 2019 alone, the European Union and its Member States had an open portfolio of some €600 million in assistance to the Palestinians. I have said it during my hearing, €600 million is almost €1.5 Million a day.
And what has that €1.5 Million a day done for peace? Or even for governance, for that matter?Not only has it turned the PA into one of the most corrupt governments in the world, but it has also allowed Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies to point to EU support as evidence that their intransigence is the correct response to any peace plan. The EU is saying every day that the fictional “1967 borders” are the only “legal” solution and compromise on that point is a reward to Israel for breaking international law, so Mahmoud Abbas has no incentive to bargain with something that the EU (falsely) says is legally his.
Throwing money and unconditional support to the PA has been shown not only to be ineffective but supremely counterproductive. The PLO has become more intransigent and less interested in negotiations than ever before – and EU diplomatic and monetary support are the major reason for that. Now that even Arab countries have realized that the PA is a bad investment, the EU remains the only supporter of the failed wannabe state.
The proof is in the polls. The Palestinian people are less oriented towards peace with Israel than they have been in years. Apparently, none of that €600 million spent annually by Europe with no strings attached on a corrupt, anti-peace Palestinian Authority has not moderated them one bit.
Imagine that.
(h/t Irene)
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