ZGram - 12/10/2002 - "Israel? In the EU?"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram  - Where Truth is Destiny

December 10, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

This is one of the oddest stories to have come across my desk top in 
a long time!  I can't wait to have the editorial writers get a handle 
on this one!

[START]

Israel? In the EU?

By Sharon Sadeh

BRUSSELS - High-ranking officials in the European Commission, which 
last week hosted a delegation of journalists from Israel, are having 
a hard time recovering from Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 
declaration that Israel is interested in membership in the EU. "Is he 
serious?" they said, over and over.

The proposal - from which the Foreign Ministry subsequently withdrew 
- may have been received with incredulity in Brussels, but the doubt 
was quickly replaced by concern that Israel might take up the idea 
with Germany, its main ally in the EU and the prime mover for the 
Union's enlargement. The Germans, who favor the addition of Turkey to 
the Union - an idea that makes many leaders of EU member states 
shudder - could not refuse an official request from Israel to work 
for its inclusion to Europe; such a move would drive a wedge into the 
enlargement project, setting it back by several years.

The leaders of the Commission only breathed a sigh of relief when 
they realized the Foreign Ministry staff was in no rush to take any 
bold steps, and that the statement was evidently meant to serve 
domestic political purposes, as was also made clear to the Commission 
by high-ranking diplomats in Israel.

The truth is that along with realization of a dream of "joining 
Europe," membership in the EU could also incur what Israel might 
consider a very steep price. Israel would have to nullify the Law of 
Return - EU legislation stipulates that all citizens living within 
its boundaries are free to settle and work without restriction in all 
of its member states - and all of the laws that discriminate 
favorably toward Jews. Israel would be required to unilaterally adopt 
all sections of the European legislation, and the European Convention 
of Human Rights. In so doing, it would all at once become a "state of 
all its citizens."

Israel would also be required to make a series of structural changes 
to its economy, to comply with the rigid criteria of the Maastricht 
Treaty. Joining the European Monetary Union - another prerequisite 
for joining the EU - would place it in a pillory of fiscal and 
monetary constraints over which it has nearly no control or 
maneuverability, such as the determination of interest rates (an 
authority now given to the European Central Bank). Additionally, 
Israel would be required to make harsh concessions in its defense and 
trade agreements with the U.S.

The September 11 terrorist attacks reignited the argument over 
whether the EU is a members-only club of Christian countries that 
provides a barricade to the spread of Islam, or a supra-national 
framework that sanctifies freedom and rights of the individual. 
Israel does not naturally conform with either of these models.

The gaps between Israel and Europe are also reflected in the 
perception of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The EU does not 
believe that the policies of the Israeli government - according to 
which, in the absence of any diplomatic horizon or credible 
Palestinian leadership, the conflict with the Palestinians will only 
be decided by a prolonged struggle that is based on military 
strength, determination and steadfastness - will ever bring peace and 
stability to the region.

Israel is viewed by widespread population groups in Europe as a 
racist colonial brute, light years distant from the enlightened "New 
Europe." The attitude is based on an unofficial assessment of the 
situation according to which Israel is waiting for the propitious 
moment to carry out a transfer of the Palestinian population - for 
example, under the cover of the war in Iraq - and that the EU must 
take strong action to foil this intention.

Senior EU officials believe that beneath the conciliatory and 
pragmatic exterior, Ariel Sharon is not interested in the 
establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan, and that he 
is seeking - with the quiet support of the Americans and the 
energetic encouragement of the Israeli army - to make the 
Palestinians' lives loathsome, by means of intentional destruction of 
property and infrastructure that were built with funds donated by the 
European taxpayer.

The Europeans are afraid that Israel is waiting for a major stumble 
by the Palestinians - for instance, an expression of support for the 
Iraqi regime in the instance of a war with the U.S. - in order to 
pave the way for a sweeping action that would go unnoticed by the 
West. Even if this assessment is unfounded, the fact that it exists 
is itself evidence that Israel's moral status is at an all-time nadir.

In European eyes, under the leadership of Sharon, Netanyahu and their 
colleagues, Israel is capable of carrying out ethnic cleansing, 
meaning that it is not worthy of inclusion in the European Union. So 
long as this perception is rooted in the institutions of the EU - 
which openly yearns for the Labor Party's recapture of the government 
- the dream of joining the European club will remain in the realm of 
fantasy.

(  Source: 
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=239383 )