Israel Matzav: Netanyahu hits back at Europeans: 'We will not accept any external dictats regarding our borders'

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Netanyahu hits back at Europeans: 'We will not accept any external dictats regarding our borders'

Prime Minister Netanyahu hit back at the European Union on Tuesday, saying that those who claim to be concerned about the World's stability ought to first be concerned about Syria's civil war and Iran's march to nuclear weapons.

"As Israel's prime minister, I will not allow hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights and our united capital of Jerusalem be harmed," he said.
He did not, however, elaborate on how he would fight against the move to restrict EU cooperation only to entities inside the pre-1967 lines.

"We will not accept any external dictates regarding our borders," he said. "That issue will be decided only in direct negotiations between the sides." Later, in an interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Netanyahu termed the measure "wrong," and said it was "an attempt to force on Israel the final borders through economic pressure rather than through negotiations."

Netanyahu said that while this was wrong at any time, it was particularly ill advised now with US Secretary of State John Kerry trying to get the parties into negotiations.

"It hardens the Palestinian positions, it causes Israelis to loose confidence in the impartiality of Europe," he said. "I think for years the Europeans have been whining about the fact that the Americans are not involved enough, now that they are involved this action actually undermines the American effort. It undermines the negotiations."

He said that Israel would talk to the European Commission, the body that adopted the guidelines, and "I hope we'll find a practical and effective solution." If one is not found, warned Bennett after the meeting in the PMO, he will call on Netanyahu to end the flow of EU funds to the West Bank, and also to keep the EU out of any diplomatic moves. "You cannot want to be involved, and then also act unilaterally," he said.

"In the midst of Tisha B'av," he said in reference to Tuesday's fast over the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, "the Europeans are the last ones who can tell us that we are fasting over occupied territory."

Actually, I think the Europeans have been whining more about Europe not being involved in the 'peace process.' And this is going to ensure that it stays that way.

To give you an idea of what the change means:

For instance, in the recently signed Open Skies agreement – an aviation agreement that benefits both Israel and the EU – the territorial clause reads: "The application of this agreement is understood to be without prejudice to the status of the territories that came under Israel's administration after June 1967." "That is language we can live with," the senior official said.

An example of language that Israel cannot live with, he added, was the draft of the next stage of the Euro-Med Youth Program. According to the draft wording, "This agreement will be implemented in conformity with the European Union's position that the territories that came under Israel's administration in June 1967 are not part of the territory of Israel." By signing that type of language, Israel would – in effect – disown its own laws, since the Knesset has legislated the annexation of both Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

The official said the Europeans know this type of language is a non-starter for Israel, and that Jerusalem's hope was that language could be found for future agreements somewhere between those two poles.

"We will have to put this to the test," the official said. He added, however, that his fear was that in the current diplomatic climate – with the talks with the Palestinians stymied and an anti-settlement sentiment growing in Europe – the "Europeans will want to go too far." If so, he warned, Israel and the EU will not be signing anymore agreements.

But here's the most curious thing of all.

[Sandra] De Waele[, the charges affaires at the EU embassy in Tel Aviv,] deflected claims that the EU, through these guidelines, was trying to determine the outcome of the negotiations with the Palestinians. She said that "of course" the delineation the final borders will be solved in final status negotiations.

The EU move, she said, was "an expression of frustration with continued settlement expansion, but not with the deadlock in the peace process."

This is positively obtuse. The EU policy is in effect saying to Israel that they won't do business with us unless we go back to the 1949 armistice lines - and effectively commit suicide. Moreover, there hasn't been a new 'settlement' since 1993 (when Oslo was signed) despite the fact that Israel never formally made a commitment - in the Oslo accords or anyplace else - not to build new settlements and not to expand existing ones.

What could go wrong?

Labels: BDS, Binyamin Netanyahu, European anti-Semitism, European Union, Judea and Samaria