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International News Title: Israel's Reputation In Tatters As EU, World Powers Review Relations Israel's relations with the European Union were already fragile before Israeli commandoes killed at least nine people in a pre-dawn raid on an aid ship bound for the Gaza Strip on Monday. The relationship between the EU and Israel, which was severely damaged by Israel's execution of the 2008 Gaza war, had been recovering slowly despite on-going concerns over Israel's plans to build some 1600 settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Now the naval operation against the Gaza aid flotilla, which has drawn international condemnation, may have irrevocably damaged ties between the two sides. The EU was joined by Russia in calling for an impartial probe into the Israeli operation and the end of the embargo on Gaza on Tuesday after both had earlier condemned Israel's use of violence and criticized the blockade. While this joint statement echoed those made by many nations and international bodies around the world, it was left to additional statements from EU representatives to clarify Europe's individual position. EU officials lead Europe's condemnation President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy called the loss of life during the raid "inexplicable" while Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said that such acts "cannot be repeated." "It is time for the international community and the parties (to the conflict) to realise that it is not possible to continue with these kinds of situation, which end in drama, violence, death, desolation and frustration," Moratinos said. While the attack has brought immediate condemnation from the European Union, Dr. Orit Gal, an Israel expert with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, believes that while the current crisis will damage ties between the EU and Israel, it will expand the current rifts between them over settlements and the stalled peace process rather than create a wholly new fracture. "Obviously real damage has been done to relations between the EU and Israel but I believe the effect of this damage is accumulative rather than a game changer," she told Deutsche Welle. "I don't expect any punishment as such but diplomatic efforts will now focus on getting Israel to cooperate with an impartial investigation of the incident." Diplomatic repercussions were immediate, with Israeli ambassadors being summoned in most European capitals. There were also violent demonstrations and much strong rhetoric from EU leaders. Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at Washington-based think-tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, agrees that immediate effect of Israeli action has been very negative in the EU, but feels the damage is not irreparable. "In the long-term, just as we saw after the Gaza war, the EU and Israel will reopen high level communications once the Israelis have shown their evidence as to what happened and explained the details," he told Deutsche Welle. "Some negative effects will remain and Israel will have trouble defending its Gaza strategy but there won't be a long-term freeze in relations." Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Brian S (#0)
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