- Home
- About
- General Issues
- Maps
-
Position Statements
- 2011 >
-
2012
>
- Time to Negotiate the Northern and Southern Sectors of the Israeli-West Bank Border
- President Peres and Dr. Ashrawi: Thank You for Staying on Track
- Playing the Victim Card Will Not Bring Peace
- Negotiations By the Parties
- The World Should Help the Palestinian Hunger Striker
- ...and only afterwards move to discuss the topic of Jerusalem
- A Question of Accountability
- Israel Twisting in the Wind
- Netanyahu: Too Big for His Britches
- Netanyahu's "Israeli Comfort"
- How Shaul Mofaz Can Jump-Start the Peace Process
- Netanyahu on the Brink
- Time for Taking Stock
- Israel in Wonderland
- Whatever Happened to the Quartet?
- The Palestinians Want to Negotiate
- A Time for Hope and a Call for Restraint
- Israel Can Win in Gaza, But Not Now
- Congratulations to the New State of Palestine!
- Security and Borders: Both Required for Peace
-
2013
>
- It Is Up to Israel to Restart Peace Negotiations
- Israel and Palestine: Changing the Terms of Agreement
- The Knesset Bill to Increase the Number of Women that Elect the Chief Rabbis Is Important for Jewish Women
- Proposal on Governance of the Holy Basin
- Time for Netanyahu to Reach Across the Aisle
- Tzipi Livni's Challenge
- Women Should Be Free to Pray at the Wailing Wall
- Proposed Highway through the Jordan Valley Will Backfire on Israel
- 2014 >
-
2015
>
- We Should Applaud Herzog and Livni for Reclaiming Zionism
- The Next Israeli Government
- West Bank Citizenry and Receipt of Individuals of Palestinian Origin
- What Next for Israel?
- Palestinian statehood
- Mischief in the Trade Legislation would Hinder Progress
- What Next for America?
- Could American Firms Choose to Gradually Disinvest from Israel?
- Boycotting Israel is not anti-Semitism
- 2016 >
- 2017 >
- 2019 >
- 2020 >
- 2023 >
- 2024 >
- Resources
- About the Authors
The EU Should Act Decisively to Move Israel toward Peace
Andrew Wilson, January 22, 2024
In recent days, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun proclaiming publicly what formerly he had equivocated about, namely rejection of all efforts to establish a Palestinian state. This came in the wake of President Biden’s proposal, put forth by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on January 18, for normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia in exchange for agreeing to provide the Palestinians a pathway towards statehood. Netanyahu rebuffed that proposal, and a few days later he doubled down, boasting to the Israeli public that he would forever thwart Palestinian statehood. “I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over all the territory west of the Jordan River,” he said in a video message on January 21.
The issue has arisen to prominence with the Israel-Hamas war and the question of how to provide for the people of Gaza once that conflict comes to an end. With the war destabilizing the entire Middle East, it has become clear to most of the international community that only a solution that guarantees Palestinian aspirations to statehood can bring lasting peace to the region. The Israeli-Hamas war, and Israel’s continued belligerence on the Palestinian question, poses larger international security issues that impact Europe and the US, which cry out for some form of international action.
The foreign ministers of the European Union, who are currently meeting on the issue, “are likely to discuss the possibility of imposing consequences on Israel if Netanyahu continues to reject Palestinian statehood,” according to a report in the Financial Times. But would any international pressure move the Israelis, who are understandably fearful of what a Palestinian state could bring?
What can give Israel, rocked by insecurity and fear after October 7, some degree of confidence that a Palestinian state can be a partner for peace and not a threat? The answer lies not with Hamas but in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has a two-decade-long record of security cooperation with the IDF. Before this recent violence, one could point to examples of cooperation, supported by the EU and the wider international community, that could have laid the groundwork for a lasting accommodation between Israel and a Palestinian state. Clearly, we need to lift up such models of cooperation, which could be thriving in the West Bank today if Netanyahu and his settler allies were not undermining the Palestinian Authority at every turn.
Now it is well established that Netanyahu has never wanted the international community’s “peace process” to establish a Palestinian state existing peacefully side-by-side with Israel to succeed. To this end, he found in the terrorists of Hamas a useful ally, permitting their sporadic attacks and then covertly sending them funds through Qatar to rebuild so that they could attack again. In this way, Netanyahu weakened and discredited the Palestinian moderates who would have been only too willing to be partners for peace with Israel.
Hamas has served Netanyahu well. He made its terrorists the straw man for all Palestinians, giving him the political cover that he needed in order to remain known as the leader who would defend Israel from a hostile world – the world as he with his Manichean mindset imagined it to be. Meanwhile, he maintained his power by allying himself with the settlers, extremists who, with religious zeal, worked to claim the entire West Bank for Israel and harass the Palestinians who lived there.
Clearly it is Prime Minister Netanyahu who is the biggest obstacle to peace, and now he has said as much. Until he resigns or is voted out of office, protracted conflict between Israel and the Palestinians will continue, regional instability will continue, and the danger of a wider conflagration will remain. At least now the Israeli public is beginning to see through his machinations, seeing as Israel is less secure and more threatened now than ever at any time in the last 50 years.
The road to peace begins with Netanyahu’s departure. Israel needs new leadership with a new outlook, one that is willing to work with moderate Palestinians as partners for a shared peace. At the same time, Israel’s leadership needs to put a damper on propaganda coming from the Israeli Right that labels all Palestinians as terrorists.
We applaud that the EU is beginning to consider steps to penalize Israel. They need to put in place at least economic consequences: a regime of stiff tariffs would be a good start. The EU’s actions would have to be understood not as done out of animus against Israel, but rather as actions undertaken to discipline Israel to cease its misbehavior and do better: instead of acting as a solo actor in ways that run counter to greater community, it should begin acting constructively for the peace of the whole region. No one should belittle the pain that the Hamas terrorists have caused Israel. Nevertheless, the international community is rightly calling on Israel to go beyond its own hurt, and play a constructive role for a peaceful future.
We are looking for the EU to impose temporary punitive measures that would be conditioned on Israel changing its policy from one of belligerence against all Palestinians to one of peace-making with moderate Palestinians. And we hope that America will, even if behind closed doors, give such measures its tacit support.
Until now, EU trade regulations only sanctioned trade with Israel for products produced in the West Bank. But now, with Netanyahu taking a hard line and all of Israel complicit in the deaths of countless civilians in Gaza, mostly women and children, there is no reason to maintain that distinction, i.e. between Israeli products made west of the Green Line (permitted) and those made in the West Bank (sanctioned). When Israeli farmers in Jaffa cannot sell their oranges in the EU because of a 50-percent tariff, and Israeli technology companies in Tel Aviv find their products uncompetitive in Europe for similar reasons, the pressure on Netanyahu may reach a point that will force his resignation.
Such measures, taken out of love for Israel and Palestinians alike, will bear fruit when, once the terrorists have been vanquished and the bombs and guns fall silent, there will be leaders in Israel who will dare to take steps for peace, supporting productive growth and development for all.
In recent days, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun proclaiming publicly what formerly he had equivocated about, namely rejection of all efforts to establish a Palestinian state. This came in the wake of President Biden’s proposal, put forth by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on January 18, for normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia in exchange for agreeing to provide the Palestinians a pathway towards statehood. Netanyahu rebuffed that proposal, and a few days later he doubled down, boasting to the Israeli public that he would forever thwart Palestinian statehood. “I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over all the territory west of the Jordan River,” he said in a video message on January 21.
The issue has arisen to prominence with the Israel-Hamas war and the question of how to provide for the people of Gaza once that conflict comes to an end. With the war destabilizing the entire Middle East, it has become clear to most of the international community that only a solution that guarantees Palestinian aspirations to statehood can bring lasting peace to the region. The Israeli-Hamas war, and Israel’s continued belligerence on the Palestinian question, poses larger international security issues that impact Europe and the US, which cry out for some form of international action.
The foreign ministers of the European Union, who are currently meeting on the issue, “are likely to discuss the possibility of imposing consequences on Israel if Netanyahu continues to reject Palestinian statehood,” according to a report in the Financial Times. But would any international pressure move the Israelis, who are understandably fearful of what a Palestinian state could bring?
What can give Israel, rocked by insecurity and fear after October 7, some degree of confidence that a Palestinian state can be a partner for peace and not a threat? The answer lies not with Hamas but in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has a two-decade-long record of security cooperation with the IDF. Before this recent violence, one could point to examples of cooperation, supported by the EU and the wider international community, that could have laid the groundwork for a lasting accommodation between Israel and a Palestinian state. Clearly, we need to lift up such models of cooperation, which could be thriving in the West Bank today if Netanyahu and his settler allies were not undermining the Palestinian Authority at every turn.
Now it is well established that Netanyahu has never wanted the international community’s “peace process” to establish a Palestinian state existing peacefully side-by-side with Israel to succeed. To this end, he found in the terrorists of Hamas a useful ally, permitting their sporadic attacks and then covertly sending them funds through Qatar to rebuild so that they could attack again. In this way, Netanyahu weakened and discredited the Palestinian moderates who would have been only too willing to be partners for peace with Israel.
Hamas has served Netanyahu well. He made its terrorists the straw man for all Palestinians, giving him the political cover that he needed in order to remain known as the leader who would defend Israel from a hostile world – the world as he with his Manichean mindset imagined it to be. Meanwhile, he maintained his power by allying himself with the settlers, extremists who, with religious zeal, worked to claim the entire West Bank for Israel and harass the Palestinians who lived there.
Clearly it is Prime Minister Netanyahu who is the biggest obstacle to peace, and now he has said as much. Until he resigns or is voted out of office, protracted conflict between Israel and the Palestinians will continue, regional instability will continue, and the danger of a wider conflagration will remain. At least now the Israeli public is beginning to see through his machinations, seeing as Israel is less secure and more threatened now than ever at any time in the last 50 years.
The road to peace begins with Netanyahu’s departure. Israel needs new leadership with a new outlook, one that is willing to work with moderate Palestinians as partners for a shared peace. At the same time, Israel’s leadership needs to put a damper on propaganda coming from the Israeli Right that labels all Palestinians as terrorists.
We applaud that the EU is beginning to consider steps to penalize Israel. They need to put in place at least economic consequences: a regime of stiff tariffs would be a good start. The EU’s actions would have to be understood not as done out of animus against Israel, but rather as actions undertaken to discipline Israel to cease its misbehavior and do better: instead of acting as a solo actor in ways that run counter to greater community, it should begin acting constructively for the peace of the whole region. No one should belittle the pain that the Hamas terrorists have caused Israel. Nevertheless, the international community is rightly calling on Israel to go beyond its own hurt, and play a constructive role for a peaceful future.
We are looking for the EU to impose temporary punitive measures that would be conditioned on Israel changing its policy from one of belligerence against all Palestinians to one of peace-making with moderate Palestinians. And we hope that America will, even if behind closed doors, give such measures its tacit support.
Until now, EU trade regulations only sanctioned trade with Israel for products produced in the West Bank. But now, with Netanyahu taking a hard line and all of Israel complicit in the deaths of countless civilians in Gaza, mostly women and children, there is no reason to maintain that distinction, i.e. between Israeli products made west of the Green Line (permitted) and those made in the West Bank (sanctioned). When Israeli farmers in Jaffa cannot sell their oranges in the EU because of a 50-percent tariff, and Israeli technology companies in Tel Aviv find their products uncompetitive in Europe for similar reasons, the pressure on Netanyahu may reach a point that will force his resignation.
Such measures, taken out of love for Israel and Palestinians alike, will bear fruit when, once the terrorists have been vanquished and the bombs and guns fall silent, there will be leaders in Israel who will dare to take steps for peace, supporting productive growth and development for all.
