Israel Matzav

Ashton to be blasted for Europe's one-sidedness

European foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is going to be in Israel on Monday, and she is going to get a frosty reception.

One Israeli official said that she will be told that if the Europeans – no matter what the Palestinians do – persist operating on "auto pilot" and focus solely on settlements, labeling settlement products, and the need for Israel to transfer more of Area C to Palestinian control, then the Palestinians will continue feeling they have a "free pass" and will not be held accountable by the Europeans for not returning to the table.

Ashton will be told that this policy is "underlying" US Secretary of State John Kerry's initiative to re-start the negotiations, and that the EU needs to back his efforts by making clear to the Palestinians that they do not have a blank check from the Europeans, and that their patience is not endless.

According to the official, the current atmosphere between Jerusalem and Brussels is "not good," a product not only of the EU's policy toward the settlements, but also because of its failure to place Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organizations, and because of Israel's frustration with the talks Ashton is leading with the Iranians in the name of the P5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany).

"On the one hand the Europeans went very far with sanctions against Iran, but on the other hand there are problems with the talks because they have not changed anything on the ground and only bought the Iranians more time," the official said.

Read it all. Israel should be putting Europe on ice for several months.

Labels: Catherine Ashton, European obsession with Israel, European Union

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:34 PM